From Barking up the Wrong Tree
By Eric Barker | The Week
ometimes life sucks. Bad. Really bad. And you feel like you want a refund.
But, of course, we need to accept that Life Avenue is going to have its share of potholes. Albert Ellis, one of the most influential psychologists ever, knew that “acceptance” is key to coping with the curve balls life throws at us. It makes sense. Walking around constantly expecting life to give us everything we want is not only comically entitled and ridiculous, but would make existence a hell of perpetual frustration.
But here’s the thing: Some of the wisest people who ever lived take it further than acceptance. A lot further.
Many of the greats embraced the concept of “amor fati”: to not only accept everything that life brings you, good or bad, but to love it. To embrace it. To revel in it. Every single bit of your life. Yes, even the truly horrible, awful, regrettable, don’t-ever-want-to-think-about-it-again moments.
To which I initially responded with a big honking: Huh? Seriously?
The Stoic philosopher Epictetus said:
Don’t seek for everything to happen as you wish it would, but rather wish that everything happens as it actually will — then your life will be serene.
And Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius agreed:
All that is in accord with you is in accord with me, O World! Nothing which occurs at the right time for you comes too soon or too late for me. All that your seasons produce, O Nature, is fruit for me. It is from you that all things come: All things are within you, and all things move toward you.
