An introduction
When the world behaves as if it doesn’t like you, bringing nothing but worries and trouble, you could be tempted to write off the whole thing and just name that terrible place we call Earth an evil place.
But it isn’t that simple. Whatever you look at, there’s more to it. Something inside that will make you wonder, that will bring you the joy of insight and show you a new path for the future and a sense of gratitude. If you open your eyes and your soul and look for it.
When that beautiful old tree falls, it leaves an empty space. But anything that lived in the shadow of the tree before will now see the light and start its own, stronger growth. It will lack the protection it used to have, but will also be free of limitations.
When an egg cracks, it may be time to make an omelet. Spice it up with your favorite herbs and enjoy it for what it is, knowing that the egg is gone, which is sad, but the stomach is full, which is good. And life moves on — the egg wouldn’t last forever anyway, and now it was time to enjoy it.
When it rains and the wind blows, you may be trapped at home, unable to go out, unable to enjoy the sun. But that gives you a reason to enjoy the shelter of home, looking out of the windows and smiling for yourself, deeply moved by the fact that you have that possibility.
When you are trapped outside in the rain and cannot find shelter, you’ll need your survival skills and abilities — to plan and do. It can feel tough at the time, but later, when through it, you now have the knowledge and confidence that you could do it once — and again, if needed. And you can choose to be grateful for everything that didn’t break during the troubled time. Being happy for having a world to live in, despite any losses.
When nothing happens, boredom rules, and you start worrying about nobody needing you, making you superfluous: What you really see is an open field, a blank page, a world free for you to build as you want it. Sure, painting by numbers would have been easier, but without the numbers your options are limitless.
When you think about it all, hardship does exist, but the shell will crack and something good will come out of it. Nature works this way. An endless number of eternal cycles of events, sometimes according to your hopes and expectations, at other times on the contrary — but always leading to a new page, a new situation, a new world for you to build.
Even the tough moments contribute — they pave the way to the good moments.
That makes life rich.
Photo by Michael Sten on Unsplash
Postscript: I wrote this text, “A Rich Life”, a couple of years ago, then to be used as an introduction to a series of articles on Medium – it was close to Easter, and I used an Easter egg as the main illustration. Later, I used the text as part of my first newsletter at Substack, since I had named my Substack exactly “A Rich Life”, but there was no photo for this particular text.
So, when putting it here, I wanted to add a photo illustrating “rich life” – not related to any particular time of the year. But when searching the stock photo sites, they all showed something like yachts, expensive cars, money, etc. – none of them immediately understood “rich” the same way as I do.
A change in search strategy, using words like “happy”, “relaxed”, etc., led to photos of people leaning back in deck chairs, jumping, laughing, standing on top of a mountain, or other abstractions of these words. And people eating and drinking! Lots of such photos, indicating that we are happy, we relax, and we feel that life is good, when we drink and eat.
That then became my choice of photo. And in line with the main idea of All of Life XL, that it should be a place for relaxing by reading, I picked a photo of a teapot and a cup of tea. This is nice to have next to you when enjoying a rich life in this meaning. A good moment.
