Stress as the gateway to peace

The Embossed Invitation to Awakening

Inspired by the work of Byron Katie

There are times when we simply just don’t feel like it. Everything is either too hard or too boring or too easy.

Psst. This is the invitation. That fatigue? That niggling restlessness? Break the seal. Open the envelope.

So many of us feel discomfort and immediately try to get rid of it with food, drugs, social media, gambling, shopping, work, alcohol, you name it. The irony is that this discomfort is the very gateway we must walk through to find peace. And conversely, our aversion to it is the very thing that keeps us from finding relief.

I like to think of it as an invitation. A real invitation on heavy paper, embossed with my name on it. An invitation designed with my exact proclivities and aversions in mind. But I toss it in the recycle bin without opening it, so it just keeps coming. I could toss it in the trash, and it would still keep coming. Until I accept that invitation, I am caught in the vicious cycle of discomfort/try to get rid of it/more discomfort.

So break the seal already. Open the envelope. Go to the party.

What does this look like in real life? Well, today it looks like this.
The daycare center takes a…