Treat Trouble As A Friend

“Trouble creates a capacity to handle it....meet it as a friend, for you'll see a lot of it and had better be on speaking terms with it.” ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

I love this quote! It reminds me so much of The Guest House by the Sufi poet Rumi. Trouble, adversity, pain and grief are companions on the journey of life; and we had better know how to deal with it when it arrives. Don’t fight against it, it will only persist and get worse. Just let it come, deliver its message and be on its way.

The Guest House ~ Rumi

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

How do you treat your guests – the pleasant and the not so pleasant?