Moments in sand, moments in rock....

"Write your troubles in the sand,

and your blessings in stone."

A friend of mine sent me this thought provoking story...

Two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey, they had an argument ~ and one friend slapped the other in the face.

The one who got slapped, was hurt, but without saying anything wrote in the sand ~ "Today my best friend slapped me in the face."

They kept on walking, until they found an oasis where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning.

But the friend saved him. After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone ~ "Today my best friend saved my life."

The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him ~ "after I hurt you, your wrote in the sand and now you write on a stone, why?"

The friend replied ~ "when someone hurts us we should write it down in sand, where the winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it."

Learn to write your hurts in the sand and to carve your benefits in stone.

My journey has been filled with many "hurts" and "benefits". As is the case for everyone, I have had my moments filled with a mixture of troubles and blessings. I have spent the last while thinking about how I choose to face those hurts, the troubles....how I can find forgiveness of others and most of all, of self. To write those hurts, the troubles, the struggles in sand and have them be "erased" away by the winds of time, washed away by the ocean, seems almost too "simple". My personal experience has taught me that it isn't quite as simple as it sounds, but it is a vital part of our health in our journey. Our greatest, healthiest focus in life should be on our "blessings", our "benefits"....the permanence of these, embedded in the solidness of rock, are what will carry us through our journey. The troubles in life, although affect us deeply, are more fluid...they vary much more so with time and experiences and in order to move forward we can't cling to them as we can to the rocks of blessings. We can't cling to hurts, regrets, troubles and struggles...yes, we need to face them, acknowledge them and then do our best to release them. Most often this releasing is done through forgiveness ~ of others and of self.

I am choosing to live my life in the healthiest way I possibly can in this moment....to recognize my blessings, of which I have many....to work through my struggles, my hurts, my troubles with integrity, honesty, acknowledgement and eventually forgiveness. To recognize that I have done the best I can....and that each struggle, no matter how painful, is a part of who I am....but not the foundation of the essence of my being.....that foundation is built on the rock of blessing ~ the blessing of existence, of being created as I am at the core of my being.