Remember my last post? All that uplifting “you can be anything you want to be, we can make the world a better place” crap? This week is the exact opposite of that.
The universe is random. People are unpredictable. If you try to control everything, you’re going to make yourself miserable.
So just… chill.
I’ve spent a lot of time talking about how important you are. Now for some balance. You’re important, but not that important. You’re powerful, but not that powerful. The universe is bigger than you and it’s shaped by forces beyond your comprehension. So while you’re trying to mold the universe to your will, and you should, the universe might just spit in your face. And that’s just the way it is.
You know Reinhold Niebuhr’s “Serenity Prayer”? Whether you’re religious or not, I think you’ll agree it’s one beautiful run-on sentence:
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference, living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, taking, as Jesus did, the sinful world as it is, not as I would have it, trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to Your will, so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with You forever in the next.”
Reinhold Niebuhr
For your entire life, things are not going to go your way, whether because of idiots doing stupid things or the inescapable fact that random crap happens all on its own. And you know what you can do about it? Move on.
I mean, there are only so many ways to say the same thing.
“The green rod which bends in the wind is stronger than the mighty oak which breaks in the storm.”
Confucius
“For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining is let it rain.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“Being happy doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. It means you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections.”
Unknown
“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”
Joseph Goldstein
“Be fluid, like water. Flow around the obstacles.”
Choa Kok Sui
“Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it.”
Lao Tzu
