Back in Boston, our bedroom was up in the trees, and right outside were the squirrels with their bedrooms. And I could see every day that a squirrel's perfectly at home in that world of trees.
But imagine taking that squirrel and plunking him down in the middle of the desert. This wonderful animal will suddenly feel depressed, anxious, confused, completely at a loss. There are plenty of animals who make a home in the desert, but not the squirrel.
There's nothing really wrong with that downcast squirrel in the desert. He's perfect. But he's only perfect when he's at home, in a place with lots of trees. In the desert, a squirrel is an unhappy misfit.
Now imagine doing something stupid: taking that squirrel to a therapist so he'll feel better... You could do squirrel therapy forever but as long as the squirrel's in the desert, he's going to be miserable. But if you just pick him up and bring him to a place with trees, now he's at home and he's happy.
There are so many people who are miserable because they are squirrels in the desert. They think there's something wrong with them. They endlessly try to fix themselves, but the fixing doesn't work. Yet they keep trying because it's hard to face the ways they're not at home in the world. And yet how simple it would be if they could see there's nothing wrong with who they are, there's just something wrong with where they are.
But they can feel more at home than they ever imagined. They just have to look for ways that events in their lives are showing them the way home.
(For more on finding the true meaning of the events in our lives, please check out our book, Everything Happens for a Reason.)
Okay, bad things happen in our lives, but what’s the difference between people who bounce back and those who stay stuck? It’s finding meaning in what happened, a meaning you can use to transform your life. This book will help you find that meaning and use it to make your life better.
“Brilliant, beautiful, and bound to make a profound difference in all of our lives.”
-Debra Waterhouse, Outsmarting Female Fatigue
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