I used to believe that life’s simplicity emanated from an earlier, easier time. Now I realize that nothing has really ever been “simple”, it was just how I processed life happening to me and around me that has changed. When I was a child, even the biggest ordeal or disappointment soon faded into hopefulness with a childlike sense of promise for what was yet to come. As an adult, we are able to process things with a much deeper analytic nature; we view life through lenses of regret and “what if”. We consider consequences, and have experienced many more of the hard knocks life often brings just by living. So we understand our mortality, life’s wear and tear, as well as relating to our perceived failings and shortcomings. We also should understand our measure of success better, and even bring light to them via a different perspective.  

To “grow up” means not only a physical renouncing of what once was with our bodies, but it also means that we have accepted change within! We should know as adults that if all things were easy and safe, our lives would not have amounted to much at all in the way of inner development or growth, much less wisdom! We then should readily accept our role as student in life’s giant daily classroom. Our day as student didn’t end when we left the safety of our kindly teachers and friends in adolescence. It didn’t end when we walked a field to receive a significant diploma.    

Life only progresses to bigger and more arduous learning experiences, for which we should consider ourselves suitably able to face rather than to dodge! When we dodge those challenges, walk safely without meeting them head on, or even when we accept ourselves as failures for not overcoming them, we are settling for less in life!

Life is for the over-comers! We are human beings, but we have to learn how to be human doers as well. We have to accept life coming at us like a series of uncertain waves, hitting our vessel (our being) as we venture out into the uncertain seas of circumstance around us. We may not know for sure our ability to handle all that comes our way, but trust we must and have faith we shall! For the waves of this life won’t stop until breath has left our bodies. If we look at life through our grown-up eyes, the reality is not always what we would have liked; but we had better choose to make the most with what we have while we’re still afloat! So my advice is this: sail onward all ye over-comers! Start by seeing life’s waves as opportunities to rise up with a new, improved you. Let hope and faith be your guides as life leads you onward into more complex and uncertain times and tides. Call upon that inner child’s hopeful spirit if you must!