One of the great tests in our lives is surely how we respond when something good happens to someone bad. Also the opposite, when bad things happen to good people, but I'm on the first one today so stay with me.
You know how it goes...someone totally underserving gets an unexpected windfall. This just happened with a blogger I know. Or your favorite chicken passes away at a young age while your least favorite, most difficult bird goes on forever. This has happened to me, too. Or someone you hate ends up as POTUS. There's a 100 percent likelihood of that happening to me this fall unless a write-in candidate somehow wins the election.
But I've lived long enough that it's all happened before and will again.
Even in the garden, the tree you lovingly tend to somehow always ends up being the one that catches a virus or blows down in a windstorm and dies, and a different tree, one you don't particularly like and always contemplate taking out, grows like a proverbial weed until it towers over you, almost mocking your disinterest in it.
Maybe it's a test on our path to see how we deal with these things. When I go through life thinking about the lessons I need to learn, the ones that keep repeating themselves come to the forefront of my consciousness. This is one of them. How do I deal with the disappointment and anger when the bad are rewarded for being bad?
I don't live in a world where I get to be the judge and jury in most situations that happen around me. Sometimes I wish I could, but mostly I'm glad I'm not because I never know the complete story. And that is where faith comes in. Whether it's faith in Jesus, God or just the Karmic Universe, sometimes we have to go on faith and know that although it's out of our hands, it's in someone/something else's.
I am writing this today to remind myself about that kind of faith. And if it reminds you too, then that is a good thing.
We are not judge or jury. We're the guy sitting in the back of the courtroom with his iPad and a snack, watching it all unfold, trying to learn to trust in a system -- the universe -- which we don't always understand.
That's all faith is, but it's enough to keep most of us struggling to climb towards acceptance, most of our lives.
Thank you for this post. I needed it today.
ReplyDeleteHave you considered writing for the newspapers again? You have a real talent.
Thank you, Molly! I'm glad it was a timely thought for you, too. I absolutely love blogging because when I have nothing to say, I can just shut up lol. When I wrote a weekly column I was on deadline all the time. Writing is great when its optional and I enjoy it much more!
DeleteI think about her a lot. How much she used to inspire me and how/when if all went wrong. Mainly I pity her. She's been just enabled enough to keep this going but clearly suffers often. $2k is a lot of money but it's a month changer, not a life changer. I've been in financial cycles like that where it's like I can put 2-3 gallons of gas in the car but can't fill it up. So you end up driving stupid places instead of where you need to go. She's got her life on the mountain but it's not the one many of us dreamed about.
ReplyDeleteI have a tiny bit of a history with Josh and Brent and I know they take their business so seriously and live and breathe it and I am most upset she hijacked their event. I don't know how they could disqualify her considering-to my knowledge-none of the claims against her have been legally substantiated. Of course the blog posts about the dental work and then puppy delivery a week later should be evidence enough in my opinion.
I agree. I deeply admire Josh and Brent for what they have done -- they are the real deal and it shows. And both of them sacrificed a great deal in order to "float" the farm until it became self-sustaining. They are everything Jenna could have been but was too lazy to aspire to. What upsets me most is the number of working, actual farms she will have cheated out of this money, if she gets it. That just burns me up.
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