Learning to Embrace Uncertainty and to Grow from It

"If we embrace the good that can come from whatever life hands us, we have come a long way in learning how to embrace uncertainty.

"Of course, few of us respond to difficulties in such an enlightened manner. Yet, some of us do. For example, Robin Silverman, in her book, The Ten Gifts, talks of her home being totally destroyed in a flood. She says:

" 'My worst fear, that somehow everything that mattered could be taken from me, had come true. IT WAS THE MOST LIBERATING MOMENT OF MY LIFE.'

"Silverman lost her house and chose to find the beauty instead of lamenting the loss. Of course, she faced some difficult times, but through it all, she chose to find the many 'gifts' that allowed her to create a life filled with peace and meaningful activity. . . .

"There is no question that life sometimes seems really rotten on an objective level. But perhaps the objective level is unimportant; it is the subjective level that determines our experience of any given situation. It is the subjective level that determines how we interpret what happens in our lives. Do we interpret something as good or do we interpret something as bad? I have noticed that when people look at their experiences in life as a way of learning and discovering more about the world and themselves, then all their experiences — good or bad — are good! As spiritual teacher Wingate Paine tells us:

" 'Bad is how we see those experiences whose part in our growth we do not yet understand.'

"Yes, if all our experiences are seen as a way of learning and growing, it could be said that no experience is bad. It follows that if we can learn to see that ALL experiences in our lives can be really valuable, our worry about the future is greatly diminished. We have come one step closer to being able to embrace all the uncertainty in our lives."