By Maria Shriver
Something interesting happened to me the other day. Just after I had spent the better part of an hour talking about all the things I missed due to the pandemic, I stumbled upon an article talking about all the good things that people felt had happened to them during this time. It reminded me that perspective is everything.
The key is being able to hold the yin and yang. If I were writing a handbook for life (and I’m not), it would include a lot that no one told me about. It would talk about how life demands that you be good—really good—at juggling and balancing the paradoxes of life. You must if you want to be a survivor or a happy warrior.
Just when you think, “OK, I’ve got things figured out,” life throws you on the ground. Just when the country reopens and you think, “OK, maybe things are going to get better," the cases surge and the nation experiences its highest numbers to date. Just when you pick yourself up and dust yourself off from one of life’s curveballs, bam! You find yourself on your knees again, learning yet another life lesson.
Just when you thought your kids were going to go back to school, you are told that Zoom is their future. Just when you find yourself saying to God, “Thank you, I don’t need any more lessons on acceptance, forgiveness, letting go, or the fragility of life,” you receive another lesson out of nowhere. Just when you’ve made peace with the fact that you haven’t been able to see your parents, or host your best friend’s baby shower, or celebrate your own birthday because it’s unsafe to do so, you
see pictures of crowds at Disney World and are left saying “what the heck…continue reading
