Sometimes times are hard. We don’t know why sometimes, it seems things just all go wrong somehow, no matter what you did or said to keep the keel even and the boat sailing forward to the lighthouse you’re seeking.
A friend had an accident, and then guess what: no work, no income, worries about rent and bills and really everything. Pain from the injury and no way to stop it really, just have to endure it and grin when you can. People do what they can, but no one is inside your skin, feeling what you are. And you feel a lot: who turns out to really help, and who is silent. What things are like with the doctors and medicines, and the complications of adjusting life around the problem. So, friends who care do what they can, when they can. And then when things are stable, hopefully my friend will heal quickly.
Sometimes its a worse situation, it could go on for weeks, months, years, and once in a while, something happens that could end life at some point too. Different people face different challenges, and one thing my Dad said is true: everyone has problems, and there’s only what you can do, to worry about. You can’t worry about things you can’t do anything about. But you can listen. For a while, then maybe someone else needs to listen. Because times are hard, and situations are hard. Little things you do are hard for my friend, really hard, and cause pain too.
Then hopefully everything is just fine again someday. Easy again. Easy Peasy, everything just goes so smoothly, just like before, before whatever happened happened. Except things are changed. Sometimes now there’s even old people gone, new people who showed up, different situations, and maybe even a new town and a new way to live. Times change, but one thing doesn’t: everyone wants the Easy Peasy. Everyone can remember a time when everything was rosy, although one may need to go all the way back to toddler days. Perhaps it was a long, epic and joyous time. Perhaps there’s only that little one, truncated too short. We may remember when everything was easy. All we had to do was wake up, do routine things, learn interesting new things, talk to interesting people who care about you, and you them. Sharing stories of the day, and maybe dream about a rosy future.
What’s it like for you right now? If it’s not Easy Peasy right now, is there a way to get there? What is in the way? I say, knock ’em down, one by one. Aim to climb into the pilot’s seat and drive your life in your best direction. Can you live the Easy Peasy life again? It might be hard now, but there is always the light. The light above. The light at the end of the tunnel. The light within.
Follow the light.
Bill Custer's thought sphere 
Happiness comes from within. Once you realize that then you can clear the noise and focus on the real important things
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Circumstances come from without, and invade the within. It’s a process to regain the clarity of which you speak.
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Circumstances are often out of our control. We control how we react and if we let them invade. Our happiness is ultimately up to each one of us.
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Hmmm, Well, being able to easily shift to a new, healthy, happy attitude is a considerable luxury to many. Maybe it was for you, so you think it should be for all? Not challenging, but asking.
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It is not easy for me nor do I expect it to be for anyone else, but if the expectation is that someone else is going to do it for us then we’re setting ourselves up for failure and disappointment
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You seem to have inserted that somehow, wonder where that came from?? All others can do, as said in the piece, is what they can. Those others aren’t the solution at all, its the light. Please read the piece again. thanks
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So this piece was about the interruptions in our path for peace and happiness. Helping others is another topic, for another day.
I’ll say this though: opportunities to really help someone when they are about to fall through a crack are rare, are to be savored and appreciated, and remembered forever.
And it really doesn’t matter what the help was, it matters that there was help, it was what it needed to be, and came in time. That’s what matters, when it comes to helping others. Some choose to sit by and let someone fall though a crack in their life, and say, oh well, they should have .
We see it every moment of every day. I will never really understand why, where the judgment comes from, and the lack of clarity that if not for grace, that would be you, someone you loved.
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I’m obviously not communicating my thought well. My apologies.
To me the “easy” or happiness that people strive for if often clouded by a belief that something or someone is needed to achieve it. “Once I get beyond XXXX it will be easier” or “If I buy that car I’ll be happy.” Others assume happiness is in acceptance or “approval” of friends or family. They worry about what others think of them or they think happiness comes from others.
I believe that is all noise. The “easy” lies within. It’s not in others. It’s not in things. Block out that noise and it’s right there. The happiest people that I know love themselves and thrive on simple things. They find their “easy” inside them.
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You did a very nice job of describing what most people can and should do. For some, the light is not within at first, John, they can’t see it because of the noise that you speak of: I call it the Cloud of Uncertainty. There are seven kinds of noise or uncertainties. So, maybe if you can show them the light from above first. Maybe you can hold their hand while they try to find the light. Maybe you show them a light at the end of a tunnel, sometimes that helps a lot. Eventually though you are correct, you don’t get there 100% until you find the light within and illuminate it with self-love and love of others. This piece is more about the journey than the end-game you describe so well.
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