Responding to the storm

I once passed by some difficulties in my life. It wasn’t one of those common problems, such as receiving low wages or have lived a humble childhood. I say common because, as a Brazilian, I know exactly what it is. That was one of those life stages in wich all areas of our lives are affected by a crisis. When this happened to me, the first thing I noticed was that I did not want to suffer.

Well, this is not one of the smartest discoveries. After all, everyone knows that no one wants to suffer. But when pepper falls in our eyes, then we really understand how much suffering is unpleasant. Then the inevitable question comes: Why we have to suffer? Look, this is a question that seeks to be answered since mankind lives on earth. I do not propose to answer it. But, as any sufferer that I am, as my readers are, we can sympathize and try to get on these lines, not an answer, but a hand, these hands that friends give each other.

If suffering knocked on your door, remember that everybody suffer, each in their own way. It reminds me of Francisco Otaviano’s words, the Brazilian poet:

"He who went through life in white cloud

And in a placid rest slept;

Who has not felt the chill of disgrace;

Who went through life without suffering;

Spectrum was of a man, was not a man -

Just went through life, didn’t live. "

It is also important to remember that pain can be useful for something. The American writer Eckhart Tolle said in one of his books: "One of the many erroneous assumptions of the ego, one of its most deluded thoughts is 'I should not have to suffer.'" According to him, the suffering has a noble purpose to make us evolve and reduce our selfishness. But the truth is that some people are defeated by their problems. Where is the evolution in those cases?

It is often a question of how these people respond to the challenges that arise. A Bible proverb warns: "If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small." What is your reaction to the suffering? Did you say "I should not be suffering" and hopes that things work out alone? What answer will you give to the circumstances? From the greek philosopher Epictetus: "We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them."

If I have to go through the day of trouble, I don’t want to be faint. I know things are much harder in practice, but the best answer for what we do not know the answer is courage. Someone has even said that without courage, all other virtues lose their value. Know that no one is too important to the point of not having to suffer. And nobody becomes important without having suffered. After all, what would be of the great navigators’ fame without severe storms?

(Text originally published in the newspaper Diário do Sudoeste da Bahia).