Everyone of us will experience some form of hardship in our lives. The degree of suffering varies from person to person, from mild to severe. Some people might come from poor families so chances are they would have experienced extreme hunger or cold. Then, there are those of who come from well-to-do families but even though they have a lot in terms of material comfort, they lack the warmth of their parents' love.

Even as adults, each of us will face different sets of problems - unemployment, illnesses, financial worries and being cheated by friends, just to name a few examples.

Perhaps what really strengthen or weaken us is how we handle issues that are human related. It is easy enough to get a free meal when we are hungry or to find shelter in cold weather. What is tougher is when we have been betrayed, wrongly accused, misjudged and ostracized by those whom we thought are our friends. I would say one of the most character molding changes we go through is from the people we know. We either become wiser, more discerning in our choice of friends or we buckle under and become a recluse.

Time heals hurts or retains resentments. We know we have the choice to make things right with those people or events that caused us grief. Yet, for some people they would rather wallow in self-pity at their plight/plights and actually believe that it is their lot in life to be doomed unfortunates.

As most of the lessons we learn of life in our lives are as a result of how we cope with the multi issues that befall us every now and then, we need to wake up and learn how to move on.

If we believe that grudges are our right then we'll never be happy even when happiness stares at us in the face. We have to learn how to accept people as individuals with mood swings, quirky traits and character flaws as we ourselves also belong to the same breed. If we choose to be perpectually miserable and make it our life's mission to spread misery throughout the world then we are the rarity, the outcasts society has no compassion for and whom, friends would hastily drop us like a ton of bricks!

One important lesson in life we must believe in wholeheartedly is that if we treat ourselves and others good, eventually, we'll be treated good. After all, life is about the living is it not?

Learn more about this author, Lee Eng Neo.
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