The bad things that happen.

Bad things happen to good people. So the saying goes. Although we know that to be true, there are just so many things that happens that makes us ask, "Why? Why me? Why her?"

Amongst the whole repertoire of tragedies and misfortune, one of the most deadly players is surely those which we have no control over. These incidences ranges from family conflicet (we can't choose our family), to genetics, to accidents and of course death.

These problems are those that we have no recourse to a prior action that we can identify and rectify to prevent its occurrence. There's not an issue that we can learn from and so avoid in the future. It renders us powerless in the face of such adversity. We cannot comprehend why we could not prevent or change the incident. It is this sense of powerlessness that is literally crippling. Once we feel that we're out of the control room of our lives, it breaks down our perception that our actions have any effect on life at all.

Here's how I've handled my uncontrollable tragedies. I accept that I've no control over these tragedies. But I know I have absolute control of how I react to it. Of course emotions often overwhelm us on such occasions. My reaction is to let it come, embrace the wave and then let it pass me. There is no general rule to how I react to each tragedy as they are all different, as will be yours.

You will find your own solutions and own rituals that will help you deal with your personal disasters. It is only KEY that you know remember that you can control how you react to it. You really can. You probably can't control your outbreak of emotions, but you can control how you react to those emotions.

Life is what you make of it. You can look back in your life and pick out the tragedies and make it a tragic story. Or you can look for the lovely details of beauty that makes it into a beautiful film. I subscribe to Shakespeare and Buddhism, so I look for and embrace both. What will you make yours to be?