“Life is suffering.” Buddha taught this as the first of the Four Noble Truths. But we didn’t need that to be pointed out! We already know this is true. So why do we seem to be so surprised when we start making choices to grow up and it..hurts?  I think that’s why they’re called growing pains, not growing comforts! 🙂  Anyway, what’s deeper from this wisdom from Buddha is about acceptance; once we understand and acknowledge that life is suffering, we can transcend it and begin to solve life’s wide array of problems with discipline and healthy choices. My thought process was inspired by the daily mass readings, followed by a routine walk with a fellow truth seeker. I came home with an overflow of things to get off of my chest. First of which is thankfulness to have someone in the trenches with me getting muddy and being confused. And growing. And learning. And sharpening each other like iron sharpens iron (Proverbs 27:17). He holds me accountable to my spiritual growth. He is also a familiar, yet, very uncomfortable representation of many of my past relationships, especially from childhood, that have now spilled over into adulthood; as they do for all of us and will forever until they are met face to face with a hammer of healing and a determination for spiritual growth. Making the commitment to spiritual growth is a life long journey, much like fitness. It’s an ongoing battle because we are faced with new people, feelings, and situations every day. No matter how we may prepare for the encounters we will have, the truth is we still can’t change our past and will never know the future. So it’s a journey, not a destination! And every day that we are blessed with the opportunity to live, let’s make choices to live in the light, to make the best of this suffering, because hey, now that we can say it so…lightly, it’s not such a suffer fest! It’s a new challenge! Perfect challenge for today, December 1st, 2013, the first day of Advent. Happy New Year, by the way. Advent is a time of preparation for Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Christ. What really hit me about the readings from today is the accountability. The empowerment. I was overwhelmed with these feelings as I read Romans 13:11-14, “You know the time, it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. Let us throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of LIGHT. Let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not as in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and lust, not in rivalry and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provisions for the desires of the flesh.” Some of us began a fast today for the four weeks of Advent. If you haven’t thought about it, maybe you can try fasting from something that makes your flesh feel good, i.e., chocolate, complaining, being lazy. Abstain from these until Christmas. It’ll strengthen your discipline. And consider reading something interesting that will empower you to make the right choices, as we were advised by Paul in the letter to the Romans. We have the freedom to choose the way we live our lives. Check out the third chapter of Allen Wheelis’ How People Change, called “Freedom and Necessity”.  It’s a toughie but it’s worth the read.

Growing up is difficult but you don’t want to be a child forever. Just because you turn 18 or 21 or 30 does not mean you are an adult. When you make a conscious and deliberate effort to become an adult, then the road to freedom begins. It’s the road less traveled, by the way. Now that you are awake with new insight, go and rock this life! Fulfill your destiny! “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.” 1 Corinthians 13:11.

Here’s a beautiful prayer from St. Francis of Assisi: “Most High, glorious God, enlighten the darkness of my heart and give me true faith, certain hope, and perfect charity, sense and knowledge, that I might carry out your holy and true command.”  Happy New Year! Happy Advent! 🙂

Peace.