We’ve all made not-so-ideal choices before, choices that have lead to years and years of consequences, contributing to us being a spiritual hot mess. It is easy to point the finger and blame this person or that. You can blame bad luck or the “punishment gods” that enacted their wrath upon your wretched, undeserving soul.

Whatever happened, whose-ever fault it was for your current situation, you have two paths before you: life or death.

And the funny thing about those two tricksters is that each of them lead to the other. They work together. They are the expansion and contraction, the inhale and the exhale of existence.

So what’s the point then? What does it matter, pouring effort, attention and love into something that will eventually end or die? Why not just be miserable then – eat, drink, and be moody?

But isn’t it wonderful – that we even have such an amazing super-power: to embrace, accept, to infuse love into both life and death or feed them resentment, anger, and revenge.

Whatever lot you have before you, whatever difficulty you are dealing with, it IS possible to infuse it with love, which is the surest way to ease, to healing. Anger, resentment, and jealousy (just like love) will only bring you more of the same.

THE TAO TE CHING of LAO TZU (Translated by Brian Brown Walker) explains perfectly the patient, lasting power each of us has within:

The highest good is like water
which benefits all things
and contends with none.
It flows in low places that others disdain
and thus is close to the Tao.

It took 65 million years for the Colorado River to carve out 5k-10k of rock to form the Grand Canyon. And if the highest good is like water, we might as well learn from its patience and follow its current or be pummeled by our expectations of life and death. So…

GURU UP, PEOPLE:

• infuse your current and past circumstances with either love or victimy (didn’t pass spell-check, but it fits)
• be the water on the rock, carve out your actions (and your life) with compassion
• accept responsibility for the quality of life you contribute to the whole of mankind