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Do I Choose to Suffer


I wish at times that I were not the author of my own suffering, that I could blame it on someone else – some nameless, faceless demon. Something or someone outside of me. Looking outward for the problem when the truth is that I am the master of my universe, the captain of my fate.

I am the one writing the script of my life. I cannot control the thoughts that flit through my head one after another. I can choose which ones I decide to entertain. While it is true that pain and loss are a part of life, suffering is not. When I choose to keep worrying or obsessing about something and working it over and over in my mind, I am suffering for no reason. When I choose to wallow in self-pity, I am suffering for no reason.

When I choose instead to let go, to accept what is and how I feel, I am not suffering; I am living.

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