The Beauty of Crucibles
Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but – I hope – into a better shape. – Charles Dickens
Everything we experience has the potential to be a learning and growing experience.
It is up to us to be open to the possibilities and make the most of them when (not if… ) they appear.
Of course, the heart-breaks and the tragedies are difficult to process as “opportunities-for-learning-and-growth” when they’re happening, but the possibility always exists.
I believe that the sufferings that Dickens references above are the most important opportunities, and the ones that mustn’t be squandered.
On the one hand they (usually/generally) teach us the greatest lessons about life and its impermanence (and the joy that lies in each moment, and no where else… ).
And on the other, they show us where we need to learn and adapt and grow. (Lest we make the same mistakes again and again.)