There's no way to sugar coat it, no way to view it for anything than what it is. As humans we are conditioned to avoid pain and suffering at all costs. But a quick check of the headlines shows that we can't avoid it. Poverty, illness, addiction, corruption, hatred, natural and man made disasters surround us on all sides.
Image - Jana Herzogova |
My choice has always been to live life, have experiences, and take the random consequences of my own actions. Sometimes my risks turned out well and I had amazing and fulfilling adventures. Other times, my choices turned out to be not-so-great and I had to live through the consequences.
For example, no one forced me to go with a group of experienced 4-wheel riders on my first-ever ride on an ATV. I had lived through enough adventure to know that a possibly really fun time was in store. Unfortunately for me, that ride turned out to be short-lived, as I crashed into a sand mound at a higher speed than what I obviously was able to successfully maneuver. My helmet, which was incorrectly fastened onto my head in the first place, flew off. My head was propelled forward, and my face hit the metal steering column at the same speed I had been initially traveling, about 50 mph, Nose shattered, blood spurting, and me screaming in pain was the result.
My nose was shattered in multiple places, the skin totally peeled off the face, and unsightly, jagged cuts continued down to just above my mouth.
I thought I was going to be a freak show for the rest of my life. But time has a way of healing, and most of the time no one even has a clue of the trauma my face went through 10 years ago.
Granted, I've never gotten back onto a 4-wheeler again, which is probably a weakness on my part, but at least I can say that I've had the experience.
I feel like I learned so much from just that one experience. I can take that with me and be able to empathize with many people who have gone through the same thing or even worse than what I went through. And I definitely have a sense of gratitude for a brain that wasn't damaged, a face that almost completely recovered, and a nose that is just a tad shorter than what it used to be! Not to mention, greater faith in the power of prayer and giving up control to God and letting Him decide what I might be able to learn through all of this.
What have you decided to experience, regardless of the outcome and what did you learn as a result?
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2 comments:
Yep, definitely, sometimes life sucks. I guess all we can do is keep going.
Life certainly sucks big time now and again, the only thing we can do is try to stay afloat, especially mentally and see it through to the end. Definitely not an easy thing to do but no one said life was always good. There are hard times as well as good times for most of us I guess. Our decisions are ours to make and whilst I'm not an adventurous type I know a lot of others who are. We just have to live with the consequences of our decisions whether they turn out good or bad.
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