A message from the island of Gods

Happiness can exist only in acceptance.
George Orwell

It has been 10 years ago, my last trip to the island of Gods, Bali. I couldn’t recall what happened during that time clearly but I could recall my first trip to Bali when I was five years old. I remembered when I played at the beach with my brother; I knew all stories about Tampak Siring and all the legend of temples in Bali. I fallen in love with Balinese dances and that was inspired me to let my daughters to learn Balinese dance since they were at the age of five. It seemed Bali has changed a lot during the past 10 years. I was amazed to see something that probably never changed in Balinese people’s life. They still love to pray, they still dedicate eighty percent of their time for praying and giving offerings to their Gods. They believe in karma and it leads their life from generation to generation. They accept good thing and bad thing as part of their karma.

It was a very simple message from the island of Gods. Life is more peaceful when we can accept what happens in our life because there is a reason, either we believe it is part of our Karma or God’s plan; it doesn’t matter as long as we can accept it easily.

In our life, it was so hard to accept our condition, because we think we don’t deserve bad thing happens in our life. Or we think bad condition as a curse or punishment from God. I think it is because the common concept that good life equals to good health, good fortune and prosperity. It is so difficult to just accept the condition that it is probably our Karma or God’s plan for our life. If we can easily accept everything is part of our life, we don’t need to envy other people fortune or even their misfortune in life. We can enjoy every situation as part of our blessing.

A young man said to me, “Life is a choice and life is hard” yes that is true. Life is a choice; we can choose to accept everything in a simple way.

Be willing to have it so. Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.
William James

**Lina Kartasasmita** Jakarta, 6 August 2011, at 7.34 PM

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