Obstacles

For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin–real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.– Alfred D. Souza

Are you waiting for life to begin? A life that you can finally relax and enjoy? We tend to beleive that “When … happens I will be happy”. Most of us spend our whole life trying to figure out what must happen before we will be happy. Our milestones come and go and yet we still don’t feel happy. We always find that something else needs to be taken care of, more unfinished business. We decide that we will be happy when that has been taken care of and the next problem is solved. And the cycle continues.

It seems that no matter what we do, there is always some problem still to be solved, some action still to be taken, some unfinished business. We never get everything sorted out so that we can finally relax and be happy. It just doesn’t work out that way. We are designed to be growth seeking beings, and in order to grow we must continue to solve problems and take actions to work things out. Obstacles are an essential part of life. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t be happy.

A truly happy person knows that obstacles are a part of life that is there for his benefit. He just learns to take them in stride. He expects and plans for them, and knows that there is always an opportunity in them if he will just look closely enough. He doesn’t let obstacles steal his happiness. He acknowledges and accepts that there will always be obstacles, and even times of challenge and suffering, and he also knows that by staying true to who he is he will not just endure but thrive.