Difficult learning

I was talking to a friend today about a series of difficulties he was experiencing recently. I reminded him that everything happens for a good reason if you choose to learn from them. He wasn’t thrilled to hear that, he was very focused on being bummed about everything. I really think it’s true, however, and I hope that soon he will be able to look past the immediate hurt and anger to see.

 I can look back on difficult situations in my life and I realize that dealing with those situations has made me stronger and brought me to where I am today. If it weren’t for those difficult situations and the things that I’ve learned from them I might have made different decisions that may have led me down a different road. There is no telling what may have been on that road or where it would have led me.  It’s like being stuck behind a slow person on a freeway, only to discover that if you had been going the speed limit you would have been at an accident scene at the moment it happened, and possibly been in that accident yourself. It’s hard to see while you are choking on exhaust fumes that this is actually healthier for you than going the speed limit with no one in front of you.

We all have tough times to deal with, whether they are financial, emotional, or mental. Health problems lead us to take better care of ourselves and our loved ones. Relationships sometimes have to end to allow you to find the person you are really supposed to be with. Financial struggles teach us to appreciate the things we do have. Even something as simple as your landlord getting divorced can lead to something better that you might not have stumbled across without that incentive. That last one I can definitely speak from experience on.

I’m not saying we should always welcome the tough times. But when those times are thrust upon us we can make the best of them, learn from them, and move on to something bigger and better. I don’t think I communicated that very well to him. I think he is smart enough to figure it out on his own, though. At least I hope so.