Shawn Maxam explains the rational optimism that helps him cope with the reoccurring trauma of  triumph and disappointment.

There are two ways of meeting difficulties: You alter the difficulties or you alter yourself to meet them.

-Phyllis Bottome

Life is a riddle that we all want to solve. Existence is filled with difficulties, ambiguities and complexities. A cycle of crisis and tragedy punctuated by blissful moments  and triumphant successes – a death follows a divorce, a graduation occurs the day before a diagnosis, a birth precedes a lay-off etc.

No matter how many times we see this happen the discomfort of disequilibrium never subsides. We never get use neither the bad times, the mad times or glad times. Our expectations remain unreasonable and our reactions irrational. We thus develop the “fixing syndrome”. We want to fix ourselves, fix others and fix the world. The problem is we can’t agree on what is exactly broken about any of us.

I get disappointed in myself and everyone else even though we all doing the best we can with the best we have at the  moment. I am slowly learning instead of trying to cure myself or the “sickness” of living I rather focus on treatment aka being healthy. The more knowledge we gain the more equipped we can become to cope with the worst of existence and to savor and appreciate the best as well. 

Read more Shawn Maxam here.

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Thanks for reading, sharing and commenting!

R.I.P. SKH

Flickr image via digikuva