Precious Disasters
Some of my luckiest breaks happened when doors slammed on my fingers. I suspect you know exactly what I mean.
I have numerous friends who, when they were young and in love, had their hearts broken. In one case, shortly before the wedding date, my friend found that his fiancee was cheating on him. If that had not happened, he would never have later met and married the wonderful woman who has been his life companion through thick and thin.
Coming in second in a sole-sourcing competition, not being accepted into the school of your dreams, being dragged into bankruptcy, a catastrophic accident, losing a home to fire… You have your own list.
No disaster is trivial, nor should we seek out bad luck to make us stronger, but the truth is that not getting what you want is often the best thing that could happen, and losing what is dear is often what it takes to make us realize how precious are the things that remain.
Amongst my speaking colleagues is a man who has received not only a heart transplant, but both lungs as well. Another lost a precious daughter and now helps others cope with grief. The dot com tech crash of 2000 produced all kinds of experts on corporate minimalism and survival. The dark cloud actually does have a silver lining.
Only a fool would poke a sleeping lion, but when heartbreak and disaster find us, as they always will, some of us will retreat to a corner and suck our thumbs, while others will seize the opportunities which are built into every loss.
Our love lives, our professional lives, and our economic lives all have their ups and downs, and it’s what we do with the downs that determine the strength and duration of the ups.
We were given opposable thumbs not to suck on, but to help us grasp life to the full.