Image courtesy of Sally Davies, sallydaviesphoto.com
If you feel dumb sitting still while your life seems to fall apart (as I suggested in last week’s blog), you’re likely to feel even dumber being expected to wait. “What’s there to wait for? Let’s get it over with. Enough is enough.”
While that may be true of some things in life – like root canals and knee replacement surgery – it’s not true with suffering which comes and goes in its own time and in its own way.
Acceptance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
We have little control over the cards life deals us, other than accepting what happens with a quiet heart, or rejecting everything we don’t like and suffering more painful consequences. I’ve done both and recommend acceptance highly. When sorrowful mysteries are at work in our life, all we can do that’s helpful is wait and not try to shape the future before the time is ripe. That kind of soulful dumbness only hinders divine intervention. All we need to do is wait and remember: This too shall pass.
No Sulking Allowed
The ability to wait is powerful. If you don’t believe me, consider the chicken and the egg. Whenever the image of the egg appears in myths of creation, it’s always associated with the divine activity of a brooding deity, which is the opposite of sulking; something we’re inclined to do a lot of when we wallow in misery. But sulking only intensifies misery like an ant in the hot sun under a magnifying glass. It prolongs suffering and makes us unbearable. No one can stand to be around a sulker, and eventually we can’t stand ourselves either. I hate it when that happens.
Brooding is Beautiful
Brooding, on the other hand, is pure magic. Something divine happens during the sitting still, waiting, hovering over, guarding and protecting that goes on in brooding over life’s darkest mysteries. And if we wait long enough – brooding and not sulking – something divine will happen; new life will rise and shine full of mercies and miracles. Been there, done that, and found that to be true. Whenever I focus on the mystery, not the misery, I feel much better.
O Sweet Mystery of Life
When we accept suffering as a mysterious part of what it means to be human, that’s when we’ll begin to see more clearly the exquisite pattern of our life. That’s when we can recognize how the twists and turns in life, even the happy turns of fortune, often come in ways that at first feel painful. And that’s when we begin to see how suffering can indeed be a very good thing.
Until next week, think about this:
“Suffering is a treasure for it conceals mercies and miracles.” -- Rumi
Karol Jackowski, Ph.D., became a nun in 1964. She's also been a college administrator, graduate of New York University, manager of a toy store, author of eight books, painter of religious folk art, and sister to everyone she meets. Please visit her website at KarolJackowski.com.
From: Virginia Bell | 8/4/10 at 11:11 am
I love this! It's so beautiful. I especially love what you have to say about "brooding." Thank you, thank you, Virginia
From: Pat Grabelle | 8/5/10 at 2:48 pm
your words are, as usual, are inspiring-thank you for sharing your wisdom
From: with a quiet heart « touch of truth | 8/11/10 at 12:06 pm
[...] —Sister Karol Jackowski, Ph.D., from this blog post on Whole Living [...]