Taking Joy in a Knock on the Nose

My general reaction to those little life lessons, the AFOGs, has not been delight. Instead, I’ve often felt affronted or like I’ve messed up or failed. I’m starting to see how to meet those lessons a little differently, though: with joy. Which means I have to laugh at myself, and at the ancient, cement-like, internal structures that feel like they kept me safe…and are no longer useful. Which isn’t easy, but is at least more and more possible. Because no matter how hard the lesson – no matter how painful those knocks on the nose – when there’s joy instead of offense and ease instead of despair, it feels like the opposite of failure. It feels like freedom.