Lotus flowers

 Inspired by Thich Nath Hanh

In everyone’s life there are mistakes, painful mistakes; in everyone’s life there is suffering and pain and it muddies the waters of life. And what happens so often? We keep stressed about what went wrong in the past, we keep grudges against others, against ourselves and we keep stirring up the dirt, disturbing our life.

If we manage on the other hand to make it quiet in our mind, heart and soul through forgiveness (for others and, equally important or even more important, for ourselves) and gratitude for the all the wonderful things that remain in our life, the dust and mud tends to settle on the bottom of the waters of our life and the water becomes clear.

The mud and dirt, the suffering and pain we experienced or created for ourselves does not disappear but if we allow it to be settled solidly at the bottom of the lake of our life,it can become a great fertilizer for wonderful lotus flowers that are rooted deep in the mud but make our life so beautiful, not only to ourselves but to everyone to who sees them. The flowers are the lessons learned, the wisdom and love we gained through sincere forgiveness, the sweet peace lying in heartfelt gratitude,...

On and off, a storm may come and stir up the mud from the bottom but the more we practice peace of mind, the more skilled we become in quieting down everything and allow the dust and mud to settle very fast again. Becoming again the very much needed fertilizer for the wonderful flowers in our life.