Whole and Complete

I used to think I could simply focus on love, peace, joy, and beauty and the hate, chaos, sadness, and ugliness would go away. Life isn't like that. The "shadow" side has lessons for us too, just as important, just as essential (see Essential Disciplines). On the ultimate, or spiritual level, nothing is good or evil, it just is. I do find life and the world to be very hospitable, very "good," and choose to make that my focus overall but I am not afraid to face and feel the misery, suffering, and pain that goes along with it on the relative ("real" life) level. That is a full life, whole and complete, the kind I want to live. I truly believe our capacity to be joyful and happy is in direct proportion to our capacity to feel and experience sorrow and sadness. This is real life, in all it's smelly, bloody, ugly as well as fragrant, vital, and beautiful glory. This principle also reconciles our physical life with the spiritual and ties in all other principles such as acceptance, surrender, patience, and wisdom. This is The Great Adventure God bless the broken road Dents in my fender