I listen to a lot of Richard Rohr podcasts these days, I just love the perspective he and his associates Bree Stoner and Paul Swanson bring to various topics, usually having to do with Richard’s book, The Universal Christ but also about other subjects such as seeing the pandemic as an initiation. I have often thought this experience we are actually still in was some kind of initiation or opportunity for us and some of what they discussed really brought that home for me.

The initiation idea came from rites of passage that many cultures used to share with their young men mostly. It still exists but certainly not in our culture for the most part unfortunately. I’d like to share some of my thoughts and realizations based on five principles of these ancient rites of initiation in relation to our current situation. I will be sharing one a day for the next while.

Today the focus is on the first principle: Life is hard.

One might say duh! Of course it’s hard, yet in our culture we seem to have decided that it shouldn’t be. Life should be easy and positive all the time. Yet sages and mystics throughout history have acknowledged that life is suffering (the Buddha), life is difficult (Scott Peck), life is a struggle (Mother Teresa).

As we go through this strange time of COVID, we are being invited to realize and truly embrace the fact that yes, life is hard and when we go through hard times, we have some choices to make as to how we approach life. We can be in resistance with thoughts that life shouldn’t be this way and make it even harder because then we aren’t only dealing with the challenge of life being hard but also with the resistance itself, the fight we have with the reality of a difficult situation. We can choose to bury our heads in the sand and distract ourselves as much as possible which is another favourite option it seems. The problem that arises with this option is that it tends to move us away from any sense of purpose or direction. Distraction may keep us away from pain for a while, but life becomes so very empty and pointless when that’s where we stay. I find that these options often lead to anger and depression and even worse.

So, what about the third option, accept it, truly accept that life is hard? Feel into that for yourself… When you take a moment to let go of resistance to the very idea, notice what happens in your body and mind. For me there is a relaxing of the muscles, a letting go feeling and I notice a sense of spaciousness. My mind calms right down too and I intuitively recognize the truth of it, especially after years of resistance to life the way it is.

Imagine if we all went through an initiation when we were in our teens that showed us this truth…How much more at peace with life might we be? How much more of our energy could be used creatively to make life better rather than being wasted on resisting what is? I envision a lot less depression and anxiety that’s for sure.

And here’s the real kicker for me, while life may be hard for us in our human nature, there is somewhere to turn for help, for consolation, for direction… our Divine Nature. When we are willing to let go of struggling with the way it is and turn to Inner Being/True Self, life takes on a whole other level of meaning and purpose, at least it does for me. When I ‘submit’ myself to the Divine I realize what Jesus was talking about when he said, ‘My yoke is easy and my burden is light.’ (Matthew 11:30) I have had far too many instances of my experience in the moment turning around completely when I finally surrendered not to know this is true.

‘Life is hard but so very beautiful’ – Abraham Lincoln. And I concur.

Namaste