Other Agendas

"Let life happen to you. Believe me, life is in the right always." Rilke

When things go our way, it is very easy to feel that life is good. Having control over the events of daily life is a powerful feeling and we like to be in charge. When events don't go as we planned we often feel life isn't on our side anymore; that somehow we have mismanaged our lives and allowed circumstances to disregard our own agendas. It is our nature to want only good times and not struggles. It is easy to forget that we are here to experience all of life and not just the easy parts. An important part of becoming real to ourselves is the understanding we are deepened and enriched not only from all the good things that come our way and expand our capacity for delight and enjoyment but more significantly from living through the experiences we never dreamed would happen to us. The rough edges of life, the places where the ground wants to fall away or does, where we have exhausted our capacity to figure out what to do next, is where trust can always be found, quietly waiting for us. Relinquishing our own devices and accepting our vulnerabilities opens up a place in our lives for trust to move in. Its gifts are reassurance that there is meaning and purpose to what we face; that even when we are most afraid, most overwhelmed, there is always an opportunity for goodness to prevail. Trust helps us accept that sometimes the resolution to what we face may not be what we would have chosen or expected much less wanted. It shows us there truly is a power much greater than us at work in the world in ways we cannot fully realize or understand. Allowing ourselves to trust means we can finally understand we can relinquish our own knowing and still be safe anyway. It gives us courage to face a great truth about life: that when we are able to accept we may not know what comes next, we find that isn't necessary to go on.