Hard times are not a mistake. You haven’t done something wrong to have hard times….. life is woven with praise and blame and gain, and loss and pleasure, and pain and disrepute for all of us. And those constantly change.
So the spiritual life is not about avoiding loss and blame and difficulty
but taking those difficulties that come to us and using them to awaken a wise and free and compassionate heart no matter what.
And often it’s in the very difficulties that the greatest freedom comes to us.
Jack Kornfield, Difficult Times and the Crystal of Liberation
Mindfulbalance 
Thank you for this message – so often I feel that if I am a good person, if I do all the right things, then I deserve happiness. the problem with this is that when difficult challenges come along, it is all to easy to feel short changed. So this is comforting, thank you.
Yep.
In the past, I thought this idea of challenges making us stronger was some macho motto, like “no pain, no gain”. Over time and with practice, I’ve been finding it’s more like smoothing out the rough spots, so that they have less impact. Living becomes smoother and more graceful with this understanding.
Thanks for the reminder.
Vincent
Reblogged this on C PTSD – A Way Out and commented:
Difficulties are part of every life.