Everything that the universe brings into our lives is actually a gift, provided we are looking through the lens that allows us to recognize it as such.
We experience life through many different lenses, the main ones at either end of the spectrum being fear and love, and everything in between.
And so, the lens we choose determines how we perceive what comes our way.
When we are deeply rooted in fear, or even mildly rooted in fear, very often we fail to recognize the gift within the experience that comes before us.
Instead, because the gift may be wrapped in experiences that feel challenging or upsetting, or cause us suffering, we may perceive them as punishment, karmic payback, bad luck, or something that brings up reactivity, anger, frustration, stress, worry, anxiety, etc.
Not because the gift is not a gift, but because our perception doesn’t allow us to recognize it as one.
What appears to be an obstacle may carry within it an opportunity for our growth.
What feels like a loss or an ending may open a new door or a window to something we couldn’t previously have imagined.
What we perceive as punishment may actually hold within it an invitation to forgiveness, freedom, greater awareness, understanding, or transformation of some sort.
The gift was always there. It is our ability to recognize it that changes.
And perhaps that’s the essence of spiritual development: to slowly shift our perception from fear to love, from resistance to acceptance, from judgment to understanding.
To gently cultivate a state of awareness in which we can increasingly recognize the gifts hidden within all of life’s experiences, no matter how subtle they may be.
Spiritual growth, then, is not necessarily about changing what life brings to us. It is about transforming the lens through which we experience it.
For when we change the lens, we change our experience of life itself.
