The wise say “For the best ones–the hardest path” or “Throw a rope full of thorns as an aid“. It almost seems that life, to be precious, “must” be difficult. It seems that every experience should be a test of our patience and our strength. On the other hand, those who know how to meditate on their existence and its purposes have clear that the best transformations take place in light and joy. Crying doesn’t teach us more than smiling, knowing how to live pain is no more formative than knowing how to live in joy, they are simply complementary experiences. But, what is the value of the difficulty then?
Is the path of spirituality a path made of challenges?
When people came to him and said they were tierd because fate, the gods, or karma were testing them, Falco Tarassaco smiled and explained that such tests do not exist. There are no crucial moments in which the laws of the universe send a difficult situation towards a person, in order to demonstrate that a new maturity has been achieved. Challenges are here to make some reflections but in reality, there are simply the things that happen, which sometimes put us in difficulty and sometimes give us strength. It is us who often transform an event into a trial, an experience through which we gain new levels of understanding or, if “we do not overcome it“, we disappoint ourselves.
Spirituality is a challenge
The basic question remains: why can’t life just be simple? The answer is simple: spirituality is made up of challenges. These are intimate challenges, which take place within oneself, and which bring us slowly, and at times suddenly to see better inside of ourselves and to make better choices. Imagine a life in which situations harmoniously follow one after the other: we are rich and we can fulfill our desires, health sustains us vigorously, we have a fulfilling love life and we are surrounded by people living the same way, with the same constant happiness. In such a situation, how could we express our strength? Find stimuli? Above all, how could we give meaning to things, with everything already being so perfect?
Find the virtuous thread
A path of spiritual growth requires from us to use our strength, intelligence, courage, compassion, generosity and any other talent to participate fully in life. Spirituality means linking events together and discovering in them a meaning that goes beyond the events themselves. It means finding a virtuous, coherent thread between contradictory situations. Forgiving and continuing to love, for example, people who affirm beautiful things and then contradict them with daily life.
Difficulties teach us to move between the folds of life and to be active, that is, to bring out the resources we need to face the difficulties. Resources that, from that moment, are available to us and to all those close to us. Even simple things can be a challenge in their own way. They challenge us not to be lazy, not to believe that the universe has taken sympathy upon us because we are better than others.
