st. john's lodge no 2 - The Trestleboard

clear that you never really stop missing someone special, you never completely get over the loss. In a backwards way, this is the good news. They will live on in the warmth of your broken heart that doesn't fully heal, and you will continue to grow and experience life, even with your wound. It's like badly breaking an ankle that never heals perfectly, and that still hurts when you dance, but you dance anyway with a slight limp, and this limp just adds to the depth of your performance and the authenticity of your character.

2. The Pursuit of Happiness Is About Finding Meaning. Pursuing happiness is not at all the same as being happy, which is a fleeting feeling dependent on momentary circumstances. If the sun is shining, by all means bask in it. Happy times are great and often fun-filled, but happy times pass, because time passes. This is something we rarely grasp at first. The lifelong pursuit of happiness, on the other hand, is more elusive; it's not based on a particular outcome. What you are really pursuing is meaning ‐ living a meaningful life. It starts with your "why." (Why are you doing what you're doing with your life?) When your "why." is meaningful, you are pursuing happiness. There will be times when things go so wrong that you barely feel alive. And there will also be times when you realize that being barely alive, on your own terms, is better than living a lifeless existence for eighty years on someone else's terms. The pursuit isn't all or nothing; it's all AND nothing, with ups and downs and worthwhile lessons along the way. In other words, happiness comes most easily when you know what you're doing, believe in what you're doing, and love what you're doing (and who you're doing it with), regardless of how things turn out.

3. Unanticipated Hardships Are Inevitable And Helpful. Nobody in this world is going to blindside you and hit you as hard as life will. Sometimes life will beat you to the ground and try to keep you there if you let it. But it's not about how hard life can hit you, it's about how hard you can be hit while continuing to move forward. That's what true strength is, and that's what winning the game of life is all about. When you have a lot to cry and complain about, but you prefer to smile and take a step forward instead, you are growing stronger. Work through your struggles and hardships. Even when it feels like things are falling apart, they're not. Take control of your emotions before they take control of you. Everything will fall into place eventually. Until then, learn what you can, laugh often, live for the moments, and know that it's all worthwhile in the end.

Gandhi once said, "Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.": There's no doubt that every day is a gift, and the gift is an opportunity to live, to learn, and to grow.

Be a student of life. Indulge in it and absorb all the knowledge you can, while you can. You may have to loose some things to gain some things, and you may have to learn some things the hard way. That's OK. All experiences are necessary. The purpose of your life is to live it in full, to partake in it to the utmost, to reach out with an open mind and an honest heart for the newest and richest experience being offered.

Written by Marc Chernoff