Liquorice Allsorts!
When I was a child, lollies were rare in our house. But occasionally Mum turned a blind eye when Grandma opened a bag of Liquorice Allsorts and offered me one.
Now when I see a bag of them, they remind me about life.
Life is a bag of Liquorice Allsorts. A mixed bag. Layers of sweet and sour. Light and dark. Variety. No two lives or moments are the same.
No One Lives in Easy Street
What have you ordered for next year?
Perhaps perfect weather, abundant health, a lottery win to usher in financial freedom forever, a new pet, a better view outside your kitchen window, a bike seat that doesn’t bite your bottom.
Whatever it is that you’re hoping for, it’s bound to be something that you think will be good for you. Something positive. Something to make your life easier than it is.
Malcolm Fraser, Australian Prime Minister from 1975 – 1983, famously said:
Life wasn’t meant to be easy.
Eckhart Tolle put it a different way:
You are not here to find your comfort zone, you’re here to be made to feel uncomfortable. To experience difficulties.
Being Out of Our Comfort Zone
But I like to be comfortable! I don’t want difficulties! A firm mattress beneath me and a high-profile pillow for my head at night. A cushion on a bench in the garden. Shoes that don’t pinch my toes. Jeans that zip easily. Effective bug repellent when I’m outside amongst sandflies and mosquitoes.
Like you, I try to ensure I’m as comfortable as possible, but Life with a capital “L” has other plans. It regularly provides me with doses of discomfort.
No one lives in Easy Street for very long. Something always comes along to boot us out. And that’s when we learn and grow and become more useful people.
Discomfort is good.
The times I’ve been relatively poor and had to mentally add up the cost of grocery items as I put them into the trolley to ensure I didn’t exceed what was in the bank, taught me to be careful with money.
Unexpectedly losing my job when I was 58 years old temporarily floored me but enabled me to take the opportunity of a new career.
The death of my father helped me mature as I realised that I was in charge of my life, not someone else.
Missing a plane on my way back from Europe years ago forced me to be resourceful.
Losing a sister last year reminded me that no matter how long we live, life is short.
We Are Evolving
Being out of our comfort zone provides us with opportunities to grow in qualities like thankfulness, compassion, forgiveness, resourcefulness, patience.
Our challenges - our times of discomfort - enable us to evolve.
So, as always, the upcoming year will provide us all with personal and collective challenges.
And that’s why we’re here. To evolve. To be better people by the end of next year than we were at the end of this one.
That’s why Life in 2025 will be a bag of Liquorice Allsorts.
All the best as you chew on each one!
With love, Marlane
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