Miracle or Grievance

"Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens." ~ Khalil Gibran

One of my meditation mentors, davidji, shares that we get to choose whether something that happens is a miracle or a grievance.  I love this philosophy and it has really changed my approach to life.   It is all about the attitude that I bring to my life.  Things are going to happen and I get to choose whether I view each situation as a miracle or a grievance. There is a great Taoist fable that exemplifies this philosophy.
 
There was a farmer who had one horse. One day, his horse ran away.
His neighbors said, “We are so sorry. This is such bad news. You must be so upset.”
The man said, “We'll see.”
 
A few days later, his horse came back with twenty wild horses. The man and his son rounded up the horses.  His neighbors said, “Congratulations! This is such good news. You must be so happy!”
The man said, “We'll see.”
 
One of the wild horses bucked the man's only son off and he broke his legs.
His neighbors said, “We are so sorry. This is such bad news. You must be so upset.”
The man said, “We'll see.”
 
The country went to war, and every able-bodied young man was drafted to fight. The war was terrible and killed every young man, but the farmer's son was spared, since his broken legs prevented him from being drafted. His neighbors said, “Congratulations! This is such good news. You must be so happy!”
The man said, “We'll see.”
 
We have all had things happen in our life similar to the farmer.  We label things as good or bad, but in reality they are just things that happened to us and we get to choose our attitude and how we react.  We are not in control of life, but we are in control of how we react.  This summer, my roof blew off, my bathroom flooded, my hard drive crashed, my car stopped running while I was driving it and I needed to have a root canal redone.  I chose to be like the farmer and see what happens.  I chose to have an attitude of acceptance and dealt with each situation as it occurred.  Then the monsoon rains came and my new roof kept the rain out, the bathroom flood brought new tile throughout the house and fresh painted walls, I have a new hard drive on my computer and I can keep on creating blogs, my car got serviced and it runs great and it no longer hurts when I eat food. In the past if this many things would have happened to me at once, I would have probably taken the “poor me” approach, but in reality each of these things brought something better into my life including reinforcing the importance of going with the flow and choosing my attitude. Each of these challenges presented me with the opportunity to choose miracle or grievance and looking back now, I know that my life is a miracle.
 
When challenges happen in your life, do you view them as good or bad or practice acceptance?
 
Do you choose your attitude when something you label as bad occurs?
 
Has something in your life that you originally labeled as a grievance turned out to be a miracle?