Life is pain. Accept that and start living.
by E. Walter Robinson ~ January 18th, 2008
Happiness in life doesn’t come from attaining something. Striving, seeking, hard work, and extreme dedication will only earn you more of the same.
Happiness itself is really just a myth. A friend’s 10-year-old son died in a helicopter accident a few weeks ago. I will fight leukemia for the rest of my life. People are forced to live in a cyclically defeating system known as “poverty.”
All of life is absurd, and it hangs by a thread.
And yet, there is something very peaceful in that awareness. Contentment is truer joy. Being content with life means that you accept that which you cannot control.
The sooner we agree that life is hard, full of struggle, quiet desperation, pain, frustration and sadness, the sooner we can actually live our lives. Stop trying to avoid pain, and you can embrace it. If you embrace pain, you embrace life.
That is Tentatio. It is inevitable struggle, but its existence does not ensure a life dominated by pain. In fact, it guarantees a certain freedom from it.
April 16th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
[...] I just heard of another co-worker who has a brother with terminal cancer. And friend of a friend–though we’ve eatten a meal together so we’re closer than that–who has a dad with stage 3 colon cancer and a mom with stage 4 breast cancer. I’m so sad for them. I wish I could say the “right” things–at least something real and honest. Cancer sucks. We all hope for the best, sometimes it doesn’t happen. Makes me think of tentatio. A term I’ve found much comfort in. Here’s my better half-explaining the meaning. [...]