Amor Fati

"Did you ever say yes to a pleasure? Oh my friends, then you have also said yes to all pain. All things are linked, entwined, in love with each other." Friedrich Nietzsche

We have so much power to create the kind of life we want. With our thoughts, beliefs, words and actions, we choose the way we want to be in this world. As I look in the rear view mirror of my life, I see that where I am today is a sum of all the choices I have made.

That being said, there are some things that we can't control, so what do we do with that? Those painful things we can't change; what do we do with that? Fight and protest, kick and scream? Sigh heavily and simply resign ourselves to our fate? Make our peace with it, find a way to accept it? Or do we actively embrace it and practice "amor fati," Latin for the "love of one's fate"? Do we love our fate? Do we love our life, all the parts of it, even the sad, bad and icky parts, knowing that whatever is happening at the present time must be something we need to become more of who we are supposed to be? That can turn it into not just something we need, but something we actually want.

Here is what I have begun to do. When I start to feel impotent or victimized, I remind myself how much I love my life. I love my fate, all of it. Not just the good parts. I stretch my arms out as far as they will go, and I scoop up everything in my life, including the pain, and give it a great big hug. I embrace my life.

I wrote a post a while back  here about how "I have everything I need." But you know what else is equally true? "I need everything I have."

Susan