I got a little book called Living Wabi Sabi and read this passage in my yoga classes this week:

The truth is that we are already perfect as we are: perfectly imperfect, that is. For all the positives in our lives, we will always have negatives too. It’s a delicate balancing act: without the negatives in life, the positives will lose their value.

If we never gain shed tears of pain,what would our laughter mean? How would a blue sky seem if we knew no rain?

When we cherish ourselves as we are, we accept other people and things as they are. We come to show more compassion, patience, and thoughtfulness. We bring more humor and lightness to any situation. When we broaden our attitude to embrace everything as perfectly imperfect, we begin to see more clearly what’s truly important to us and we increase our joy of living.

Believe it or not…no matter how it may seem at the time, the core of your suffering is not your inconsiderate partner, your demanding boss, your insufficient bank balance, or whatever. The root of your suffering is found internally, in the limitation you place on yourself.

With every painful situation we face in life, we receive an opportunity, a chance to break through our boundaries and expand our potential. Every upsetting emotion, from the most trivial nuisance to the most agonizing heartache, originates from within ourselves. Therefore, we are in command of our suffering. If we can feel it inside ourselves, then we also have the power within to transform it.