Life IS perfect as it is- A different view on suffering

I am grateful for so much. Looking back I can see how the bumps and bruises of the past have paved the most amazing set of lessons in my life and prepared me for every single path ahead. Buddhists often claim that, "All is perfect as it is" and most often than not I have had conflicts with this seemingly overly simplistic view on life. How could everything be perfect as it is?, I would ask There is so much suffering out there; it's just simply not possible to have this view. If I allow myself to even slightly ponder upon the current day senseless war casualties, or on the uninhibited pollution of our waters, or child abuse I would never sleep a blink.

So, how could life ever be considered perfect? You see, we often look at life only through one lens, the current lens, our lens. Instead, if we were to look at life through a wider, longer-timed lens we would see something quite different, quite amazing. We would see the slow, yet unrelenting strength of the human spirit rise again and again against all odds. When I open up about my painful past with others, people are often taken aback at my casualness in discussing such heavy subjects. Yet, through time, the pain from the past has become a source of great source of power for me. The past has chiseled out in me a set of skill sets I know actively use to connect with others, on a very human level. I have been to the doors of hell and made it back in one piece, and the mere fact that I survived my tough journey has made me fearless. I love life, and do not take any of its gifts for granted.

This vivid and insatiable gratitude is only one of the many gifts I have inherited from my bumpy youth. Life IS perfect as it is.