You Can Bear This

Living life through a single narrative?

Are you noticing that others dominate how you think about things?

Maybe it's useful, but it's 100% incomplete.

In my deep dives into other perspectives, i.e., Stoics, Chinese medicine, and Celtic each give a far deeper, and wider perspectives on what it means to be human.

The Stoics teach us that we can’t always control what happens, but we can control how we respond. This is wisdom because it's still 100% accurate today.

Picture a tree in the rain. To my knowledge, it's not complaining about the storm.

Chinese medicine shows us that dis-ease is interconnected with the spirit, mental, emotional and physical - a conversation we can learn from for a richer, more connected life. A headache? Your body might be signaling, slow down. Anxiety? A warning that something needs to shift—maybe your boundaries or your environment.

Celtic wisdom, like eastern medicine and philosophy, honors the cycles of nature—the dark and the light, the death and the rebirth. Each has its role.

Context is everything, and many views and the long view of our current situations creates a bigger perspective, a deeper breath, more spaciousness in our thinking.

Each of these traditions has its own language, its own practices, its own way of guiding us through life’s challenges.

The key is discernment.

Sometimes, we can do something about a situation. Sometimes, we can’t. We have to decide when to take action and when to step back. That’s the edge we walk.

Hard times are opportunities. And turning away from them only creates future messes.

I'm fine is the biggest lie.

Think about it. If you’ve ever avoided an uncomfortable conversation, you know what I mean.

That silence turns into resentment, and that resentment can rot a relationship from the inside out.

Most of the time, we can’t change what others are doing. But we do what needs to be done anyway, because it’s the right thing to do.

We can bear what we’re seeing—even when it’s uncomfortable and out of our control.

There are times when we can step in and make a difference. A leader sees the chaos, steps up, and says, "Here’s what needs to be done," and takes action.

The word I heard today is euthemia.

It's focusing on what is within your control—your thoughts, actions, and responses—while accepting what is outside of your control.

It’s the strength that comes from knowing when to stand firm like the tree in the storm—and when to move with the flow, but not be swept away like the river that cuts through rock.

Life is full of both. And our job is to stay grounded in our own wisdom—observing our sway by reactivity, emotion, or old, unhelpful patterns.

We can bear hard times. We’ve always done it.

But we have to learn when to bear it and when to act.

And trust that we already know the difference.