Eyes
to See It
“The
seed of suffering in you may be strong, but don't wait until you have
no more suffering before allowing yourself to be happy.”
Thich
Nhat Hanh (The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Turning Suffering into
Peace, Joy and Liberation.)
This
may seem a Pollyanna notion to you—on first reading it did to me
too. I thought, “Easy for you to say, but what if shells were
raining down on your head, or rockets were blowing everything to
smithereens next door to you.” And then I remembered the children
of Gaza during the brief cease-fire. They were out in the streets
playing amid the rubble. Children could teach us so much if we let
them.
Almost
every life has some sorrow in it—an ailing parent, a child that's
gone off the tracks, debt, instability in employment. We all have our
“cross to bear,” so to speak. We also have the choice of whether
to focus entirely on that, or to look more broadly. We hone in on the
one thing that is not what we wish it to be, and let the good stuff,
the parts of our life that are going well, drift away. Pretty soon
our suffering looms so large no light can penetrate the gloom.
If
little children in war torn areas can play on the beach between bomb
blasts, surely we can find some joy in the midst of a difficult day.
The trick is having eyes to see it—looking for everyday miracles
wherever we can find them.
In
the words of Thich Nhat Hanh, “Smile, breathe, and go slowly. As
long as you are alive, everything is possible.”
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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