Choice

I've heard life is about seasons. Chapters in a book. We cannot live in all the seasons and all the chapters at once. We cannot skip a seasons or a chapters. Nor can we choose what qualities come with each. For example I cannot experience the beauty, quiet, and stillness of newly falling snow and simultaneously bathe in warm summer sun. We must live through and in all as given. Frustration is the fruit of accepting only part of what is. The joy of arriving at a destination does not come from simply arriving- but the story in between. The Lord of the Rings isn't an epic tale because Frodo dropped the ring in the molten mountain. It is an epic tale because of what it took to get there. Confusion, doubt, fear, danger, pain, suffering, evil paired with courage, faith, friendship, sacrifice, hope, and reaching true potential.
It is the pairing that is powerful and true. Pretending there is only positive or negative during any season is damaging. Accepting that there is nearly always a varied mixed of the two is powerful. Because then you have a choice. I want to actively choose my focus to be on the positive and allow the negative to be as it must with neutrality and acceptance.