Schopenhauer asked, “Can anything happen to you for which you are not ready?”

And Joseph Campbell said, “The refusal of the Call to the heroic task is essentially a refusal to give up what one takes to be their own advantage.”

And I step in here to wonder, when the things happen for which we are not ready, is the impact of that blow is difficult to deal with because our resistance is a refusal to give up what we take to be our advantage?

We cannot take many of the things that happen to us, not because we cannot take it, but because we do not want to take it. It is an emotional blow because we do not want to grow up and face, deal wth, the unwanted.

We are held hostage by our desire to be problem-free, trouble-free our whole life long. Our immaturity is our refusal to pay the price of growing up. It is our place to realize this and to recognize that Everyone Grows Up Against Their Will!!! What are we going to do about that? Face up to it. Come to terms with it. Be big about it AND GROW UP!!!

Only as adults can we deal successfully with the pain of life over the full course of our life. As we mature, we develop a quality of presence, of being with whatever requires our presence and attention, that is preparation for what will be asked of us at some point in our development (Actually, at several points). And we may as well understand that and be ready for it. We become ready by taking up the practice of saying, “Here I am, now what?” at every step along the way. Standing up, stepping forward and meeting what meets us enables us to do what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done anyway, nevertheless, even so, which amounts to doing the right thing, at the right time, in the right place and in the right way. The way of the Tao. And the way of mature human beings.