Ups and Downs

I really thought the point of life was to arrange things so that nothing happened that I didn't like.  Well...guess what...Of course, when I couldn't seem to work that out, I just figured everyone else had it figured out and I didn't.  So I just tried harder.  And oh my God how I complained to anyone who would listen about my rotten luck, the bad guys out there that were causing me all this trouble, and on and on and on.  My friend, Rose says that some of us in recovery used to belong to the convent called "The Sisters of Perpetual Suffering." 

And then I found out that no one leads a charmed life, that this is a troubled world and even if you go live in a cave, trouble will find you.  Saints probably get headaches and have to make their beds when they're too tired and have to put up with people who obnoxiously disagree with them.  So... what in the world can we do!?  The wisest seem to say make the best of it. 

My dear friend, Joanie, my spiritual mother, had a husband I really didn't like.  He was arrogant and disrespectful of her and I'm pretty sure he cheated on her.  She deserved so much better.  But when he got brain cancer and died in two months after it was diagnosed, I gained a little respect for him.  He said, (while he could still talk), "I don't like the hand I've been dealt but I'm going to play it the best I can."  And he did.  And that's what we all can do if we choose to.