Par For The Course

June 22, 2008

Dear Friends,

The home that Carol and I rent here in Sedona is in the middle of a golf resort. When some friends of ours found out that we were moving into a golfing community (even though we don’t play the game), they gave us a book called “Golf for Enlightenment” by Deepak Chopra.

One of the most interesting points that Dr. Chopra makes in his book is this: No matter how skilled and experienced you are at golf, there will always be days when you are just plain lousy at it. Instead of holding yourself to an impossibly high standard of perfection, a more “enlightened” approach is to recognize that disappointing days are inevitable, and to keep those challenging times in their proper perspective.

So it is with living life in the divine flow. No matter how good you think you are at following divine direction, there will always be days when you will not glide toward your goal with effortless ease. Instead, you will find yourself running into rocks or getting tied up in the reeds.

Why? There are numerous reasons why you might encounter uncomfortably challenging circumstances in your life. Here are just three:

First, you have to remember that many of the situations in life that you consider to be undesirable are only undesirable from your personal point of view. Someone else who has a different history or belief system might take that very same challenge completely and easily in stride. In other words, your situation may not be—in and of itself—particularly challenging. It just looks that way to you.

Second, some of the challenges you face in life are there because—on a subconscious and/or soul level—you have specifically chosen to experience them. At a very deep level you may actually want these particular challenges to be in your life, so you can heal a long neglected emotional wound, or expand a limited way of being that is preventing you from living a more fulfilling and joyful life.

Finally, quite a few of life’s challenges are simply the natural consequence of making too many unguided or misguided choices . . . choices made from fear instead of faith . . . choices that are not divinely guided or inspired, but are, in fact, ego driven—even though those choices might have been made with the best of intentions.

Are you experiencing a trying time in your life right now? Rest assured, I am not going to tell you to think of this painful period as just “a bad round of golf.” No matter what is going on in your life, the discomfort you are experiencing is real, and I certainly don’t want to make light of that, or summarily dismiss it.

However, I do invite you to keep in mind what I often suggest in these weekly messages: Every challenge you experience in your life—no matter what it is, or why it is there—can be a stepping stone to your highest good . . . a divine opportunity to help you move closer to your dream . . . a chance for you to grow in compassion and wisdom . . . an occasion for you to heal what needs healing . . . or all of those things.

Here’s to living life in the divine flow, and remembering that disappointing days and trying times are—when seen in their proper perspective—“par for the course.”

Steven

© 2008 by Steven Lane Taylor
Author of Row, Row, Row Your Boat:
A Guide for Living Life in the Divine Flow