Life ain't fair
“Life isn’t fair!” a phrase that is hammered into our heads by our parents, and every other adult figure, from the moment we were able to communicate. The answer to every injustice we face, over and over again it is repeated. You would think that we would have learned this by the time we reach adult hood yet it is a repeated lesson that we must continually learn. Bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. Life ain’t fair, it is absolutely true, but its unfairness is the exact thing that actually makes it balanced and fair. If we all got what we actually deserved we would probably be saying those same words, “It isn’t fair!”
“If I only knew then what I know now.” I was thinking about this yesterday; of course there are many things that I would do differently but something we often forget to realize is that yes, if we knew then what we now know we probably would have avoided many of the mistakes but we also, more than likely, would have missed out on the countless successes as well as the valuable lessons we learned along the way. There are so many decisions that I would never make presently but those decisions are also the exact ones that got me to where I am. I equate it to the “Back to the Future” issue; if you go back and “fix” one thing, you change everything and break off into a new, unknown reality, which may be even worse.
Now, of course, this does not mean that we should recklessly smash our way through our lives with no regard for the damage that we are causing because we can justify it with the knowledge that either way we cannot control things. More along the lines of when we are trying to decide what to do, particularly when it is two good choices, there is no “right way”, there is only the way we take and each and every direction will have its own share of good and bad. It is on us to give things meaning and make the most of them.
That is the crazy, difficult, yet beautiful thing about life, you just never know, and you never will. All we can do is take the information that we have in front of us and do our best with it. Sometimes the worst decisions can lead to the best outcomes and vice versa. Life is tricky that way. This is why I feel it is so important to follow our hearts and the things that we just know, regardless of the outcomes or what others may believe; you know that you stayed true to yourself.
There is no “right time” for anything, there is only time, and we have a finite amount. We must take the information we have and dive confidently into the unknown. Of course, there are better times than others but far too often we are waiting for a perfection that will never occur. There will always be something that comes up, something that gives us a reason for pause. We put it off and hesitate and before we know it ten years have passed and we are still in the exact same exact spot as before. That is the thing we should fear most, lack of growth and movement. Realize this, even if we stumble and fall, even if we fail, we will have learned lessons that we can take with us that will inevitably lead to strength. The best way to get going is to just begin moving, nothing was ever been achieved by sitting around and waiting (yes, of course there is a time to meditate, pray and contemplate situations). Most of those that achieve things in this life, particularly the exceptional things, had no clue what they were doing. They had an idea of what they wanted, moved forward and figured it out along the way. The failed their ways to success, all while others were trying to perfect it before starting. No matter how much you think that you have it down ahead of time, you will inevitably stumble and fall countless times along the way. We are going to have failures regardless, might as well do them in the process of moving forward.
-The End