we must never forget that all human freedom is contingent upon destiny to the extent that it can unfold only within destiny and by working upon it*
Viktor Frankl

If I no longer have to fight against the sheer fact of encountering problems, because that’s battle I’ll never win, I get to dive more fully, perhaps even with relish, into the problems I actually have.**
Oliver Burkeman

The problem with life …
Is that life is a problem –
Remember the five elemental truths?:^
Life is hard
You’re not as special as you think
Your life is not about you
You are not in control
You are going to die;
Don’t be despondent, these truths are
foundational for a most splendid life,
They are the necessary limitations or constraints
leading us towards a more imaginative and creative life, if
we learn how to play with them;
This is where the three responses of
humility, gratitude, and faithfulness turn up as
playmasters:
To be most fully who we are, and not who we are not,
To notice what we have, rather than what we lack – and to share,
To play with these daily in small ways, on our own and together,
Noticing where these lead so we might follow.

*Viktor Frankl’s The Doctor and the Soul;
**Oliver Burkeman’s Meditations for Mortals;
^I often refer to these from Richard Rohr’s Adam’s Return.