“We can let the circumstances of our lives harden us so that we become increasingly resentful and afraid, or we can let them soften us and make us kinder and more open to what scares us. We always have this choice.” (Pema Chödrön, The Places That Scare You)
The next time I catch myself grumbling about the weather, the jerk who just cut me off on the road, or the “imperfection” of some part of my body, I’m determined to grab my copy of The Places that Scare You by the American Buddhist Monk, Pema Chödrön, because she reminds me to practice rejoicing in my good fortune. She says thing like this:
“It is easy to miss our own good fortune; often happiness comes in ways we don’t even notice. It’s like a cartoon I saw of an astonished-looking man saying, ‘What was that?’ The caption below read, ‘Bob experiences a moment of well-being.’ The ordinariness of our good fortune can make it hard to catch.”
What good fortune has been hidden in the ordinariness of your days?