“Happy events make life delightful, but they do not lead to self-discovery and growth and freedom…. Every painful event contains in itself a seed of growth and liberation.” Anthony DeMello.
I so want to argue with that but am hard-pressed to do so. It occurs to me that perhaps this is why, in sports, it is so difficult for a team to repeat as a champion. The winners are left with the delight of winning, and it is easy for the work that got them there to slip from their memory. It may be natural to start believing your own “pub” and lose some of what got you there. Who knows? But note DeMello writes that painful events contain “a seed of growth and liberation,” a seed only. In this I am reminded of the Danish proverb (though it sounds very German to me): “God gives every bird its food, but does not throw it into the nest”
Those seeds sown by adversity require recognition, and it is easy to overlook them whilst fretting over the adversity. And once recognized, they require some care and effort for growth to occur.
What seeds has this adversity cast along my path, and what will I do with them?
It occurs to me... 