Today as I was surfing through my Facebook newsfeed, I came upon a good friend of mine's status that inspired today's blog post. It's a quote from Carl Jung that I had never heard before until I read it on Mary Helen's status post this morning. It had truly impacted me in a way I'm not sure I'll be able to describe.
"The greatest and most important problems of life are fundamentally unsolvable. They can never be solved, but only outgrown."
What a powerful statement. It's something that reads more and more powerful the more you read it. Read it again, and slowly, taking each word in. How does it make you feel about life and the problems we encounter in our lives? For me, when I read it, it was so profound in it's impact on me that it was like there was a lift in my soul; a very releasing state to be in, as Mary Helen described it. And it really is releasing. A releasing of the need to control what we really have no control over or the need to change what cannot be changed and just learn to accept what is. My friend Mary Helen said this: "I guess it goes along with the idea that life is a mystery and it behooves us not to try to manipulate things to make them come out like you think they should be. It kind of goes along with Scott Peck's philosophy that life is difficult and the sooner we embrace that idea, the less difficult it will be." I thought she reflected on that very eloquently and truthfully. I agree with her because I have been trying very hard for the five years now since my accident to try and understand why this happened. And it always seems the harder I try to understand, the more I don't understand and the more upset I become. I need to just let go of the need to understand it and just accept what happened and embrace that life is just difficult and shit happens. Perhaps the sooner I do that, the less difficult life will be. Even as I write that, I feel better, lighter, happier. I mean, life will still be difficult for me because of what happened to me. I'm not saying that as soon as I embrace that life is difficult and shit happens that it will all be sunshine and smiles. It probably won't be for you either if you're experiencing something difficult in your life. What I am saying and what I think Carl Jung is trying to say is that the greatest and most difficult problems in life cannot be solved but can be outgrown by accepting and letting go of that need to fix and solve and change. Instead, accept and embrace and you will outgrow it or you will go mad trying to solve what cannot be solved or changed. Which is kinda where I've been headed trying to change what I cannot change. It's only made me deeply unhappy. Time to stop trying to understand what I will never be able to understand. Time to accept that life is difficult, shit happens. What I do have control over is finding the good things in my life, taking that deep breath and saying to myself, "It will get better. I will be OK," and maybe I will find myself in a happier, more content frame of mind about my life.
No comments:
Post a Comment