I am so NOT thankful of my hardships.

nobody is truly thankful for hardships, although as time moves on and that hardship has been "resolved" so to speak, the closure and clarity of the experience wises you up abit.

sometimes i think life itself is a hardship. everything, to some degree, is hardship. so why do we continue on? because it's surmountable and there're motivating things to strive for.

if things become too much or you lose sight of something to fight for, to live for, the wind is out of your sails, and you drift.

the best thing is stay in the wind up to the moment you die.

i realize life isn't perfect. lots of drifters. one thing keeps me going is the knowledge there're so many swifter boats making pictures in the waves. life works sometimes, really well. humanity is not that bad. and i've nitpicked too, i've picked at the wounds. it's what it's.

what's better? i'm not even sure such a thing exists. i don't think I'd recognize it. something interesting stuck with me lately is when I read about Sigmund Freud and his near death experience(s). afterward, he described our world as a "box universe". at the time, it represented to him a confined undesirable place because the place he left was so pleasant. he really didn't want to come back--the events unfolded that way.

but i don't know any of that, so I can't be bothered by it. this reality is all i know. it's the same for most of you too--unless you from another place or you got a secret to tell? (i don't count wishful thinking)

originally posted by: jonnywhite
sometimes i think life itself is a hardship. everything, to some degree, is hardship. so why do we continue on? because it's surmountable and there're motivating things to strive for.

if things become too much or you lose sight of something to fight for, to live for, the wind is out of your sails, and you drift.

the best thing is stay in the wind up to the moment you die.

i realize life isn't perfect. lots of drifters. one thing keeps me going is the knowledge there're so many swifter boats making pictures in the waves. life works sometimes, really well. humanity is not that bad. and i've nitpicked too, i've picked at the wounds. it's what it's.

what's better? i'm not even sure such a thing exists. i don't think I'd recognize it. something interesting stuck with me lately is when I read about Sigmund Freud and his near death experience(s). afterward, he described our world as a "box universe". at the time, it represented to him a confined undesirable place because the place he left was so pleasant. he really didn't want to come back--the events unfolded that way.

but i don't know any of that, so I can't be bothered by it. this reality is all i know. it's the same for most of you too--unless you from another place or you got a secret to tell? (i don't count wishful thinking)

If life was too easy all around it would be too boring. Hardships build strength. People can either whine about it or try harder.

a reply to: jonnywhite

I didn't know Sigmund Freud had any near death experiences, that's interesting.

It reminds me of my own near death experience when I ended up in the ER for three days... I know that death is warm and comforting and it feels right, when you're on it's bed that is. I think it's supposed to be like that. Like, when our bodies know it's the end... there's no arguing it and we're physically programmed to accept it and it is the most peaceful of all peaceful that I've ever experienced in my life.

When you're not dying though, you can't experience that... in fact once my body figured out that it could survive and live instead, I was suddenly flooded with insane determination to do everything in my power to live. That also was one of the truest moments of my life.

Anyway I'm not really whining. I was just trying to give others a way out of the mental labyrinth of thanking our abuses by suggesting another way: forgiveness. And I am not making it up, some people have argued that something positive can come out of even something like child abuse or what I experienced. They are just trying to make it feel better for themselves, I know that now.

I'm reminded of the expression, "the squeaky wheel gets the grease." Think about that for a moment. Like how the wheel that is squeaking isn't doing it because it's a model of perfection. It's squeaking because it's not living up to it's potential. And I think that a certain amount of whining and complaining is appropriate in specific situations. So there's that, too.

I also addressed the different kinds of hardships of life and I understand that sometimes when we are challenged... it motivates us. And that's something else entirely different than what I am saying here. I think people don't want to create new categories for the different kinds of "hardships." They just throw everything into ONE lump sum, but that doesn't reflect reality for me. I think people are just afraid to admit that SOME things are totally devoid of a positive outcome... and I understand. I think I basically died when I found out that some things you can't escape, and nothing good can possibly come from it (three days in the ER).

a reply to: geezlouise

i agree with you. i too am tired of those saying "i'm thankful for this bad thing that happened to me, because look at me being a special butterfly now" BS!

i would have been happier and possibly healthier without many [most] of the bad things that happened to me..

i too chose to forgive those people, and i managed to have the events exit my thoughts. i am thankful for this.