Grindstone

Life is a grindstone. Whether it grinds us down or polishes us up depends on us. Thomas L. Holdcroft

Our life on earth is meant to be a series of lessons to help us learn and grow. I like to think of it as a "school field trip" for our spirits. Just as when we are at school we are given a series of problems to solve, life presents us with a series of challenges for the same reason. They are meant to test how much we know, how motivated we are to solve them, and how flexible we are in finding solutions. They are meant to teach us lessons and build our confidence in our ability to deal with them successfully. But everything depends on how we see our challenges.

Just as in school, some of us struggle mightily with our challenges. We get frustrated and angry. We start feeling sorry for ourselves and ask "Why me?" We have some idea that life is supposed to be smooth sailing, that we should never make mistakes or, worse yet, even fail in our first attempts to get what we want. Sometimes we even say something like "I could never figure this out. I'm too stupid". We lose our sense of direction. We lose our ability to think clearly about the problem, and find a suitable solution. The grindstone of life grinds us down.

And, just as in school, some of us succeed grandly. We sail through challenges, getting all A's so to speak. We rise to a new challenge, excited to prove that we can indeed get through it successfully. We are confident that we have, or can find, all the skills we need; and so will be able to work it out. We expect to run into problems from time to time, and we know that they can be solved. We stay calm and alert, and think clearly about the problem and its solution. In this case, the grindstone of life polishes us up. We are able to learn the lessons we need to learn, and get done what we need to get done. We are successful in life.