Life Coaching London – Free Newsletter
Subscribe to the newsletter
This page will be regularly updated with a coaching article considering a topical subject. To be alerted when a new issue appears enter your contact details below. I promise that your details will not be sold or rented to any third party.
Subscribe today and I will send you FREE of charge, and without obligation, my e-Book “Top-Twenty Stress Busting Tips”.
Happiness from Adversity
Extracted from the “Out of copyright” book “Happiness”, by Frederick S Attwood, published in 1923.
Many people say to me “I seem to have been the football of fate, kicked about and buffeted all my days.”
Yes, to many people adversity, trials, afflictions and similar disciplinary experiences are like stumbling-blocks; groping blindly in the darkness, we fall over them, causing ourselves further suffering. In reality they are stepping-stones upon which we may mount into a sphere of less selfishness and greater service.
Homer was blind, and out of the physical darkness which entombed him were born those immortal poems that so enriched the literature of the ancient world. Milton lost sight after reaching middle age, and thereafter gave to the world that masterpiece of English literature, “Paradise Lost”; he himself said, “He that hath light within his own clear breast may sit in the center of the night and enjoy bright day.” Stevenson wrote some of his most helpful words when his body was on the rack of physical torture.
And so I might multiply examples and instances of noble souls who, out of intense suffering, have given to the world the inspiration of an example which has cheered other weary pilgrims on to the land of “Heart‘s Desire,” to the finding and keeping of that peace which comes from overcoming.
Out in the Western mining country I once saw the gold quartz brought from the mine to the stamp-mill. It was placed in a crusher and broken into smaller fragments; these fragments were then placed upon the platform of the stamp-mill; the water was turned on, the machinery started, and, with all their weight, down came those ponderous steel stamps upon the rock, crushing it into floury atoms. The water carried the crushed mass over the amalgam plates where the quicksilver was, and the tiny particles of gold which had been held captive in their rock-ribbed prison, having been freed by the crushing of the machinery, fell to the bottom of the water and were caught, and held by the quicksilver for the use of man, while the crushed rock, now valueless, was carried over into the dump-pile below.
So, my friend, when you are called upon to pass under the stamp-mills of suffering or through the burning, fiery furnace of adversity or affliction, remember that not a particle of the pure gold of character can suffer loss; on the contrary, these are the processes by means of which character is refined and purified until at last it reflects perfectly the divine image and likeness.
It is not well, however, to cross bridges until you come to them nor to swim a river if a boat is on your side of the stream. “Never trouble trouble till trouble troubles you” is the modern way of saying “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”
Many people make themselves and others very unhappy because they are always borrowing trouble. If in midwinter a beautiful, spring-like day appears they call it a “weather-breeder” and prophesy dolefully, “We‘ll pay for it, you‘ll see.”
- “Build a little fence of trust around today.
- Fill the space with loving thoughts and therein stay.
- Look not through th‘ sheltering bars upon tomorrow,
- God will help thee bear what comes, of joy or sorrow.”
Some years ago I stood in the streets of Calgary in the Canadian Northwest and, looking toward the west, I saw in the distance that beautiful page from God‘s great book of Nature, the Canadian Rockies, rearing their snow-crested peaks proudly into the blue above. In the clear atmosphere of the Western prairies the hills appeared to be no farther distant than eight or ten miles; in reality they are eighty miles distant from Calgary.
The story is told of two Englishmen who arrived at Calgary one summer evening, straight from the old country. That night they shared the same room at the crowded hotel; in the morning when they drew aside the window-shade, there burst upon their vision that beautiful panorama of lofty peaks, their snow-caps of age-long purity scintillating in the bright sunshine. Overcome by rapture at the sight, one of the Englishmen turned to his companion and said, “Gawge, let‘s walk to them ‘ills before dinner!” It was a glorious prospect, for, as the reader knows, English people are great walkers. A walk to the hills before lunch and that delightful meal eaten perhaps in some little inn nestling at the base of the mountains, then the walk back to Calgary in time for the evening meal, was a lure not to be put aside, so they started out to walk as soon as breakfast was over.
Well, they walked and walked, and after that they walked some more, and then they kept on walking until it was high noon. The sun beat down upon them pitilessly; they were hot, tired, thirsty. At that instant they chanced upon a coulee, a threadlike stream crossing the prairie, its tiny banks no more than six feet across, and between them a rivulet of crystal water.
Both Englishmen lay down and began to lap up the refreshing fluid; one quenched his thirst before the other and went back a few paces in order to gain the necessary impetus to leap the stream, when he noticed his companion removing his clothes. In amazement, he inquired, “Wot yer doing, Chawley?” to which Charlie replied, “Do you know, Gawge, if the distance across this blooming stream is as deceptive as the distance to them blarsted ‘ills, we‘ll ‘ave to swim before we get ovah.”
And so many people get ready to stem some overwhelming, gushing torrent when in realty ‘tis but a silvery rivulet crossing the dull monotony of their prairie-like existence, at the waters of which they might slake their thirst and gain fresh strength and courage with which to go on to the everlasting hills.
Discover how NLP and coaching can help you
John or Joy will be happy to discuss this or other aspects of our approach to coaching, absolutely free of any cost or obligation. To arrange a mutually convenient telephone chat, email us on or call 020 8864 8509 or 07768 452562.