“Being negative only makes a difficult journey more difficult. You may be given a cactus, but you don’t have to sit on it.”

We get a bad deal, dive head first into its onslaught and follow our natural instinct to pull ourselves down into its abyss. It’s the classic, “oh, woe is me” approach. All of sudden, we can’t see more than four feet in front of our faces, and thus, our entire vision is tunneled into whatever is so “terrible” that is happening to us.

If you didn’t know too much about cacti, like me, you’d probably think it wasn’t a very fun plant. It’s rigid, it’s spiny, and it’s just plain uninviting. Nothing good here.

But, if you took the time to get to know that cactus, you’d find out some interesting things you wouldn’t have expected. You’d learn that its spines help prevent water loss; you’d learn that the specialized structure that produces its spines also bloom flowers and; you’d learn that beneath it all, there is an extensive root system which enable the cactus to thrive in the most toughest of conditions. But, I digress. This isn’t a lesson in the study of botanomics.

What it is though, is a study in seeing the big picture. And, the big picture is you and the universe. Not, you VERSUS the universe but you AND the universe, working together, whether you know it or not. The cosmos is always conspiring to put you on your path. It’s like a clandestine auto-pilot. We think we might be getting a prickly cactus, but we’re really getting what’s beneath that inhospitable exterior. We can either choose to have a seat on the thing and make it worse, or we can choose to eventually see the flowers blossom and marvel at its unseen ability to give itself life.

The universe doesn’t want to drag you down and make life difficult. But, it does want you to learn a little as you go. It wants you to be able to find the Love in every situation you face (which, don’t get me wrong, I waiver on from time to time. Case in point, hearing another absolutely ridiculous sounding 4-cylinder muffler drive by as I type this. Like, what am I supposed to learn from being completely annoyed by those things?).

Nonetheless, choose to Love the prickly spines, and ask yourself, “why am I facing this? What will it help me learn? and, “how can I embrace this?” And, it’s okay if you don’t have the answers. Just asking the questions puts you in a position to receive what you need to receive. Let yourself have faith that Love is on your side, albeit sometimes disguised as few bumps and bruises. But, they’re really only bumps and bruises if we choose for them to be.

If we choose to embrace that cactus, give it our Love, let it grow, become stronger and bloom its flowers, we’ll learn the lessons we need to learn. And, sometimes it may happen overnight, but other times, it may seem to take forever. Sometimes, we might need to put all of our energy and effort into it, while in other instances, we might just need to send our Love from a distance and let it do its thing.

Everything wants to grow into something beautiful regardless of its exterior. Choose to find the beauty.

be Love.

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