During the course of each day, we all experience what we call “good” things happening as well as “bad” things happening. But if we take away those labels, we’re really just saying that some experiences are expected, and some are unexpected–and then we call the unexpected events “bad”. And we then go through our days reacting to either expected events (good) and unexpected (probably bad) events. For expected events, we are pretty much just practicing what we already know; they are familiar. For unexpected events, we are forced to try new things–which means the outcomes are uncertain. And uncertain outcomes are bad. But what if we look at the experiences of our lives in this way: when unexpected events come along, we see them as an opportunity to practice doing things that may be unfamiliar. And who knows? The next time that “bad” thing comes along, it won’t be unexpected, or unfamiliar and maybe, just maybe, it turns out to be good.
