There are times and moments that certainly try ones patience. There are times and moments that challenge everyone. There are times and moments that seem like they are a test for us in some way and especially when we find ourselves and our lives seemingly or potentially shifted and changed as a result of the so-called "test" when we find ourselves in the midst.

One of the better questions to try and recall in all of this "happening" however is am I being tested or challenged right now, if one believes in such things? Is there something in the grand scheme of the pattern of creation that is placing this in my path so that I may be tested?

There are many differing and varying opinions on all of this depending upon such things as tradition of belief, ways of belief, the motivations that influence people to fall into certain ways and patterns of viewing the roadways of life as they unfold not to mention the individual differences and the experiences that inevitably make up who we are.

It would seem an easy thing to simply state some given position on this theme and to yet again, as is the seemingly perpetual pattern throughout the ages of spiritual thought, to state that one way or the other is "the way" to believe or the better way to set your feet towards in order to gain great revelation into the reasons for the difficulties one faces in all of existence.

Instead however, this author continues his pattern of believing that there remains great virtue in forwarding a true and an earnest inner-dialogue on the fabric of life that opens up the imagination and a way of being that also seeks answers from within the soul instead of counting upon someone else to fill in the blanks of some spiritual truth.

Many of the difficulties that we find ourselves facing and navigating along the path of life seem so individual and so alone on the great sea of being do they not? The stark truth in a relative respect however is that there is little that any of us ever would or will cross paths with that has not ever been crossed before and yes, it sometimes helps to hear, to read, or to listen to another talk about their experiences in living and surviving such times in their own life. Terms like shared experience, commonalities, and empathic understanding are some that have been used to open up the veils of determined aloneness that comes right along with such times. It really is true you know, that we are never truly alone in our patterns of experience even when we feel as if we are all alone and that none of what any of us have felt or are in the midst of feeling has ever been felt before.

One of the spiritual patterns to existence that seems to be an increasingly popular and an accepted way of thought in our modernist age is that the Great Spirit or God is not sitting on some cloud up there maneuvering and manipulating our experiences in such a way as to test any of us and this spiritualist carries this way of thought on his journey on a continuing basis. Else there could be some major resentment building taking place in the Great Spirit department on this end.

While there do seem to be patterns of experience that do appear to sometimes be crafted by some finger of unfortunate fate, the sources of most of the difficulties of life that come along seem to be more related to such things as the potentialities of chance or the associations of our decisive thought and action, and yes in physically related circumstances, those associations of physically determined factors not otherwise specified that can bring about some effect, but you can fill in the blanks on all of those.

Does any of this mean that there no spiritual factors that influence us as we make our way along this path of life?

Indeed, one wonders if there are spiritual factors of being that turn our path for reasons unknown to us for some determined purpose?

Do we have influences and indicators that can help us to make better decisions and to focus our minds more readily when we need them?

Or, if one is to take the position that there are no spiritual influences to our path, would it be prudent to presume that we may be walking a path determined by the association of randomness as a rule in "all" of experience?

Some find that time honored form of the phrase that "stuff happens" sufficient enough to fill in the blanks of why some events and circumstances seem to cross our paths. Some find themselves on an ever increasing search for the reasons and the ultimate reasoning as to why this or that just jumped into our particular life.

Some believe that the universe is against them, while yet still, there are certainly some who do believe that they have been the target of some ultimate manifestation of a form of punishment geared to teach them something, for some reason.

Is one right and another wrong? Or is there some form of truth to any of this or to all of this in some perspective of being?

Perhaps it may help to think on the possibility that one way of thought is to allow oneself to gain a wider perspective on the nature of why some-thing has happened instead of simply laying its presence onto either mere chance happening or to some wider spiritual force in existence?

Perhaps it just could be that ones current circumstances are the results of a sequence of thoughts, a train of choices, and a pattern of actions that led to something happening or coming to be in life?

Theologians frequently use the term free will to explain much of this in the grander scope of all of what is. Science often applies some form of the terms determined and random factors as a means to apply some association or connection that can bring about a cause and effect relationship that brings about some difficulty in life.

How about this:

No matter how one forms their views or gains their perspectives onto the patterns, the happenings, and the incidental presence of the difficulties that present themselves in life, it may not matter as much what form of belief, or what foundation of thought one uses as a living compass along the path of life. Perhaps what matters more is that one allows oneself to see the forest for the trees when it presents itself and the facts for the unrealities about that which brings about the difficulties that come along in ones particular day, or week, or month or even for a lifetime?

Perhaps it doesn't as much matter what belief or what method one partakes of as a tool for traversing the spiritual connections in the difficulties of life, but to allow oneself the chance to truly move beyond such times and to not become landlocked into ways of being because they become familiar?

Perhaps the presence of a way of belief that provides a true inner-strength and love and the motivation to get better is a more important presence than any one or more particular ways of belief?

It's a lot to think on yes?

Think about it...

As Always

WD Allan

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