\”Where you stumble, there is your treasure.\”
— Joseph Campbell\”Fate is the trouble you cannot avoid.\”
— Michael Meade\”… an Orpheus Mission\”
— Michael Meade\”The Devil is in your business.\”
— African-American saying\”Just because you\’re in the storm, doesn\’t mean you are on the wrong path.\”
— Rev. Raymond Bryant“Resistance is directly proportional to love. If you’re feeling massive Resistance, the good news is, it means there’s tremendous love there too. If you didn’t love the project that is terrifying you, you wouldn’t feel anything. The opposite of love isn’t hate; it’s indifference.”
— Steven Pressfield\”I did not wish to attract the Devil\’s attention. But I could not avoid it.\”
— me
The Buddha was tempted by Mara (Unhealthy Emotion) on the night of his enlightenment. Jesus was tempted by Satan (Adversary) in the wilderness before beginning his ministry.
If you are lying, cheating, and messing around, it\’s little surprise if your life\’s a mess. And the lives of saints also are filled with trials and troubles. But the lives of ordinary folk in between these extremes generally only have ordinary troubles.
My wife\’s and my troubles lately are creeping out of the ordinary. My laptop just died. No smoke, no noise, no flickering, no warning. Replacement parts are hard to find, Lenovo will not sell replacement parts to third party repair shops. The Windows 7 installation on my wife\’s laptop messed on itself, requiring reinstallation of the operating system, the programs we use, and restoration of the data from backup. The windshield of her car cracked and had to be replaced. The list goes on. Not life-threatening, but very distracting.
Either someone/something is trying to get our attention. Or we have attracted the attention of someone/something unwanted. Or both. My wife\’s take is that this kind of attention also comes in times of discernment. When we are at the crossroads, where the choices facing us are not ordinary.
Maybe this is the trouble we cannot avoid. We are stumbling. We are in the storm and the way back is not visible. What to do? The world\’s wisdom traditions say button up your coat, pull the rain hat down to protect you from the worse, but not block your vision, and walk directly into the storm. That may be the best compass you\’ll have—ask which direction am I most resistant to going, and head that way.