"The Meaning of Challenge" by Dr. Brizman

I personally do not follow any exact faith. Mine is a personal interpretation of a combination
of many philosophies that guide me through my life. But, it occurred to me that if one would
consult his or her practitioners of faith, one might get answers such as:

all things are meant to be as they are, as God designed them to be, ad we must accept that
there is a higher purpose to all of this, or,

God does not give us more than we can handle, or,

there are karmic reasons for all that happens in life. But,

Sometimes, no matter how strong our faith and our belief systems, these kinds of words dont
bring much solace. IN fact, sometimes we could be left feeling abandoned and alone in
our suffering.

I bring this up because the pain that one can feel in questioning moments such as these
can be profound and life altering.

As a practitioner of Chinese medicine with some faith in a higher purpose, I choose to
believe that "life" or, our body offers us the opportunity to find ourselves at a fork
in the road with a stop sign. This is when our body has said "enough". At that point we have the opportunity to go one way or the other. We can continue in the direction that has led us to be unhealthy or we can choose the other direction and look at what has led us to the place we have newly arrived upon.

This present destination is not a place where one magically lands on a given day. But, like all things, is a place that has had many events having led up to it.

I find that if this opportunity is taken and change is made, the redirection can be beneficial
in both the short term as well as the long term. The course of one's life may be infinitely healthier as a consequence of having met with that fork in the road.

So, whatever your personal beliefs or faith. Try to be strong when you are met with adversity and see the possibilities for that which lies ahead because of the unwanted event instead of focusing on the unwanted event itself.

This perspective may help in those dark moments of despair, I hope.