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Everything Happens for a Reason: Finding the True Meaning of the Events in Our Lives

Mira Kirshenbaum

Top 10 Best Quotes

“I can see every day that a squirrel's perfectly at home in a world of trees. But imagine taking that squirrel and plunking him down in the middle of the desert. This wonderful animal will suddenly feel depressed, anxious, confused, completely at a loss. There are plenty of animals who make a home in the desert, but not the squirrel. There's nothing really wrong with that downcast squirrel in the desert. He's perfect. But he's only perfect when he's at home, in a place with lots of trees. In the desert a squirrel is an unhappy misfit. Now imagine doing something stupid: taking that squirrel to a therapist so he'll feel better... You could do squirrel therapy forever but as long as the squirrel's in the desert, he's going to be miserable. But if you just pick him up and bring him to a place with trees, now he's at home and he's happy. There are so many people who are miserable because they are squirrels in the desert. They think there's something wrong with them. They endlessly try to fix themselves but the fixing doesn't work. Yet they keep trying because it's hard to face the ways they're not at home in the world. And yet how simple it would be if they could see there's nothing wrong with who they are, there's just something wrong with where they are. But they can feel more at home than they ever imagined. They just have to look for ways that events in their lives are showing them the way home.”

“Think about your story in a new way,' the wise person says. 'You've been thinking of it as a loss. Now think of it as a liberation. What happened to you--it actually freed you up. And it didn't just free you up any old way. It freed you from some dead weight of the past so you could find a new home that would bring life to some part of you, maybe the best part of you.”

“If you've been fortunate enough to discover that the meaning of what happened to you is that you have something far more to offer than you ever imagined, you have to offer it. Bring it out of yourself and into the world. This isn't easy. It takes trial and error. You might find obstacles to discovering how an artistic talent can best be expressed, for example. Just remember that certainty you felt inside about how you were special. That's real. You have to let it see the light by doing something with it. And don't give up until you do.”

“If only you look, you'll find that right in that hole is something you've desperately needed to complete your journey successfully. And you wouldn't have found it if you hadn't fallen in that hole.”

“tradition is the guru, the person who turns darkness (gu) into light (ru). The guru, in other words, is a teacher.”

“The bad event gave you the strength you needed in your foundation to make possible the next wonderful thing in your life.”

“Some people are able to forgive when they realize that the other person just couldn't help it, because he or she was sick, damaged, or limited somehow. Some people find forgiveness when they realize the other person has suffered more than they have. We also find forgiveness when we realize the other person has suffered enough, even if he or she hasn't suffered more than we have. We forgive when we realize we're safe now. We forgive when we realize that we don't want to be the kind of person who doesn't forgive. We forgive when the other person makes up for what he or she has done. But perhaps the most important reason is that when we don't forgive, we're the ones who are hurt the most.”

“People often chase the danger they’re least afraid of to distract them from the part of life that scares them most.”

“If not, you'll just keep falling into holes until you can grasp the gift cosmos keeps on trying to give you.”

“is bound by pratityasamutpada, the twelve-membered chain of causality. And the first link in this chain is ignorance. Ignorance starts the chain that binds the soul to the cycle of rebirth and suffering. Only when ignorance is overcome (through learning what the events in our lives have to teach us!) can we liberate ourselves from starting the cycle yet one more time and so finally achieve nirvana.”

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Book Keywords:

special, self-help, foundation, liberation, forgiveness, art, freedom, depression, living, squirrel, home, loss, life, therapy, misfit, talent, strength

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