專四晨讀美文：A Full-Time School Called Life

A Full-Time School Called Life
You are enrolled in a full-time school called "life".
Each day in this school
you will have the opportunity to learn lessons.
You may like the lessons or hate them,
but you have designed them as part of your curriculum.
Why are you here?
What is your purpose?
Humans have sought to discover
the meaning of life for a very long time.
What we and our ancestors have to overlook,
however, is that there is no one answer.
The meaning of life is different for every individual.
Each person has his or her own purpose and distinct path,
unique and separate from anyone else's.
As your travel through your lifetime,
you may encounter challenging lessons
that others don't have to face,
while others spend years struggling with challenges
that you don't need to deal with.
You cannot be sure why you struggle financially
while your peers enjoy abundance.
The only thing you can count on for certain is
that you will be presented with all the lessons
that you specifically need to learn;
whether you choose to learn them
or not is entirely up to you.
The challenge here, therefore,
is to fit in with your own unique path
by learning individual lessons.
This is one of the most difficult challenges
you will be faced with in your lifetime,
as sometimes your path will be radically different from others.
But, remember, don't compare your path
to the people around you
and focus on the great difference
between their lessons and yours.
You need to remember
that you will only be faced with lessons
that you are capable of learning
and are specific to your own growth.
Our sense of fairness is the expectation of equity,
the assumption that all things are equal
and that justice will always prevail.
Life is not, in fact, fair,
and you may indeed have a more difficult life path
than others around you, deserved or not.
Everyone's circumstances are unique,
and everyone needs to handle
his or her own circumstances differently.
If you want to move toward peace,
you will be required to move out of
the complaining phase of "it's not fair".
Focusing on the unfairness of circumstances
keeps you comparing yourself with others
rather than appreciating your own special uniqueness.
You miss out on learning your individual lessons
by distracting yourself
with feelings of bitterness and resentment.