Bad Things are Going to Happen. That’s Life

     This is my first article in a while. I was considering what to write about and I came across this quote.

Never underestimate the pain of a person, because in all honesty, everyone is struggling. Some people are better at hiding it than others" ~ Will Smith

    I have often wondered how some people do it. Stay positive and upbeat when going through the worst of times. While others are negative and depressed when they have everything going for them.
    You see we all have the same destination. At the end of life we die. Some of us believe our soul moves on but nobody argues the fact our physical body dies. Our individual lives are made up of what we do between the time we are born and the time we die. Our life is our journey through life. Life is a struggle for everyone. The difference between individuals is how that struggle is handled. Attitude is everything. A positive attitude supported by a strong faith in God is (in my opinion) the best recipe for dealing with life’s struggles. Napoleon Hill wrote the most famous book on success ever written called “Think and Grow Rich” In that book he worked for years interviewing successful people looking for a common trait or “supreme secret” as he called it. He came up with one common trait. Not hard work,  not persistence, not knowledge and not luck. (All of course contribute to success.) But he discovered that the supreme secret was “What the human mind can believe the human mind can achieve.”
   The key word is believe. I believe in God and agree with the supreme secret. This combination has been my recipe for maintaining the right attitude to deal with the challenges I have faced in my life.
   Let us look at the supreme secret reversed. “What the human mind can’t believe the human mind can’t achieve.” Now isn’t that a powerful statement ? Doesn’t that explain why so many people struggle through life. We have all heard the term self fulfilling prophecy. Many people believe we program our own destiny in the Universe by our own thoughts and beliefs.
     Life is complex and not easily understood. Life is not a journey alone but a journey with others we love and care for. We can have the best attitude and the strongest beliefs shaken to the core by something terrible happening to a loved one or someone close to you. You question why did God let that happen ? Bad things do not come from God. Life here on earth is life here on earth. Bad things happen to us all for any number of reasons. Poor decisions, effects of other people’s poor decisions, disease, weather and more. All having to do with existing here on Earth. Praying for God’s help, protection and guidance will provide comfort but divine intervention is rare as God seldom reinforces our faith in Him by proof.
        The past few weeks have seen us lose two young men close to us. Jay Bennett  and Derreck Pineo. Jay was a friend and our hearts go out to his family and Derreck actually worked for our firm before joining the RCMP. He had three young children. Again our prayers go out to the family. Look at the shootings at the movie theatre last week in Colorado.Sometimes life just doesn't make sense.
       These are terrible blows to the families and no they will never get over the loss of these loved ones but life goes on. I tell people your loved ones are only a prayer away. I know our physical bodies die here on earth but I am convinced that that spirit, life or soul so precious, so special does not die but just evolves to the next level. As a caterpillar becomes a beautiful butterfly so a beautiful human soul is released on death.
        Try and stay positive as you travel through life and if you can’t believe in God try and believe in the goodness in the world and not the bad. Yes it’s all mixed together and hard to separate sometimes but there is more good than bad. You just have to look harder for it.

God Bless

Larry