“The tighter you squeeze, the less you have.”—Thomas Merton
I’ll keep this short and sweet: sometimes when you try too hard to make something happen, it falls through.
You may have the best intentions in the world, but for some reason the cosmic energies will simply not align with your persistence, and alas, something doesn’t work out.
That’s OK.
Because you see, everything happens for a reason. I know. You hate that line, right? We use it to justify things all the time. You didn’t make the volleyball team — for a reason. You got dumped by your boyfriend — for a reason. You lost your favorite purse — for a reason. Honestly, the line serves as a cushion for you to fall on when something just doesn’t go your way, whether you deserved it or not.
I choose to listen to another line: Everything will be OK in the end; if it’s not OK, it’s not the end.
Again, this one is built on the optimistic foundation that things will always turn out as they should. Personally, this line offers me some hope. I’m an impatient kind of person. I like to see change the second I start to seek it. It doesn’t work that way, but this line at least tells me that somewhere down the road, I will feel better. The other line doesn’t even give me that assurance.
Anyways, the point of the matter is, don’t squeeze too hard. Don’t limit yourself to seeing only one option or opportunity. I can tell you right now that you’ll be doing yourself a disservice with that kind of thinking. The guy in your Anatomy class is NOT the only guy out there for you. The position you applied for is NOT the only one that can make you happy. You can make either the best or the worst of situations.
Release that grip, and allow yourself to be more open. Open-minded, open-loving and open-living. Take each bit of criticism with a grain of salt, and remember that no matter what happens, there is only one guarantee in life: it goes on.
I’m going to tie in one last quote to this entry: “Never let success get to your head or failure get to your heart.” Work confidently and live humbly. Every mistake is a learning experience, so how can you really lose? There is no hurry. Just live.
Xoxo,
QQ