A LETTER TO MY DAUGHTER

Dear daughter,

You say 'life is all trials'.

It does seem that way to you, doesn't it?—trials and life. I know. Ask anyone who’s hurting from being tossed around by all imaginable problems life throws at them, and they’ll tell you that it isn’t easy imaging rainbows and moonbeams at one's doorstep waiting to be let in.

But—on the other hand, if you do look hard enough, you’ll see the truth in those words. And yet only—only if you learn to forget your pain-- because you have to free the space in your heart for something else to enter, like joy. When you stay cowering in your dark narrow space of strife, you will never get to see what’s outside of yourself. Think, maybe it isn’t really so bad. Maybe what you are going through is the only path to somewhere worthy and better. If you don’t try you won’t get to see the sun that could be waiting for you behind those dark foreboding clouds. So it sometimes requires you to break through it with all of your force and strength to get to the other side, to get out into the open, to get to that better place you want. And when you do, here in this place you will delight in the sweet pleasure of joy, happiness, success, enjoying the thrill of victory over strife.

Wait—‘notice something there? See that you had to go through all that to get to that special place of hope and joy? That it was all necessary to get you to where you are at last! That one is essential to the other-- that there is no joy where there is no pain. Remember what I told you long ago as a kid-- to have a sunrise, the sun must first set. Each requires the other to appreciate its worth.

Do I see you smiling now? Ah! Finally… you understand what goes into flavoring the soup of life.

LIFE IS NOT ALL TRIALS AND IT IS NOT ALL JOYS, THERE IS A MIXTURE OF BOTH NECESSARY TO FLAVOR THE SOUP OF LIFE.

posted on Thursday, November 03, 2005 7:34 AM