There was a zen master living in the mountains who welcomed all for advice and guidance to those who inquired. To each visitor she said: Thank you God for everything. This was the totality of her advice.

Many left disgruntled at this advice. Those without understanding could not fathom this advice in their own affairs. How could they say thank you for all the struggles of life?

For those who understood, life changed for the better and they continued to be thankful to God for everything.

All visitations of our lives are there to teach us something. What the lesson is from each experience we must find for ourselves. Never doubt that everything has the capacity to teach us something.

Accepting the Divine flow in our affairs we realize that all lessons of life can be embraced. There is never anything that can happen to us that we cannot handle. We can and must take personal responsibility in our lives. In this way we can be thankful for all the happenings life tends to bring our way.

Lesson are intended to give us something to learn so that we can change ourselves and live life more according to God's plan. We can often accept the lesson, without any of the pain of struggle we have encountered to get that lesson. Perhaps that is the ultimate lesson, accept the lesson, release the pain.

When we accept the Divine flow of 'Thank you God for everything' our struggles seem to vanish into air. We no longer try to flow away from the lesson, but accept it willingly into our growth.

All lessons are about our spirituality. As we live this spiritual life in human bodies, we find a material pull away from solutions of love and care. This is when we most need to flow with the Divine in forgiveness of self, then others.

From Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: We are not a human being having a spiritual experience. We are a spiritual being having a human experience.

Life is a river. In a river are many shoals, wave, rocks and obstacles. When we paddle our own particular boat through these challenges, we gain the lesson of the exercise. Sometimes it is painful to enter into these lessons and see what is our part to play. Other times, we are catalyst for others to see into their own mirror of responsibility. Either way, life is about the lesson, not the struggles of pain.

Learn more about this author, Judy Merrill.
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