For a long time, I had trouble to get any relief from the slogan, "This too shall pass."  In fact, sometimes, I felt pretty angry and definitely hurt and scared when anyone would say it to me -- or even said it in my presence but not to me!  Gee, how insane is that to *ask* for confrontation when I don't want it and know I'm not in shape to deal with a confrontation!

Yes, I admit, when I am stressed, tired, hungry, scared, and so on, I can react to things that aren't even any of my business!  Been there, done that; got the T-shirt; wrote the book; starred in the movie made from the book; made a few music videos showing me reacting instead of responding.  :)  I can smile now about it but it wasn't fun and it certainly didn't make me feel better.

And I admit, it can still happen that instead of choosing how I will respond to a situatoin, I skip right over any sane thought process straight into reacting.  My reaction may not be visible on the outside -- of course, it always affects me inside.  *I* know; *I* pay the price whether anyone else is aware or not.

A few years ago, my best friend told me this joke and the joke helped me to be a little more lighthearted whenever I heard "This too shall pass."  Here's the joke that helped me:

Several members of a church were in a meeting where they were asked to share their favorite Bible verse.  As the first few members shared their favorite verses, the other members of the group just nodded and smiled because they understood why that verse would be a favorite.

When it was one man's turn to say what his favorite verse was, he said, "And it came to pass."

The other members of the group started looking at each other with puzzled expressions.  Finally, somebody asked, "Why in the world is that your favorite verse?  It doesn't even make sense to me.  Where is that in the Bible anyway?"

The man smiled and replied, "Oh you know all those passages that say ... And it came to pass that such and such  happened?"

"Oh yeah, okay, your verse is in the Bible.  But I still don't understand why it's your favorite."

"And it came to pass" said the man, "is my favorite verse because it doesn't say ...  And it came to stay."

Now THAT made me laugh every time I thought of it! :) :) :)  That helped tremendously.

Still, the other day, I was in bad shape, a mess.  I was in a group and someone told about their distress and someone else said "This too shall pass."  Now was that any of *my* business?  Nope.  Inside I could feel my stomach knotting.  Instead of reacting, I asked for help -- a hard thing for me to do.  I admitted how little I am helped by hearing "This too shall pass" and how I can go right into crazy-thinking when I hear it.  And I asked for help ... any suggestion or guidance or advice about how to get more "sane" about those words.

Here's what someone said: Saying "This too shall pass" is like saying, "Life goes on." 

Bingo! I "got" it.  I have no problem with the saying "Life goes on," because I know in my gut that life goes on, nanosecond by nanosecond, life is moving right on.  That saying, I just accept the same way I accept that right regularly, it's daytime, then it's nightime, then it's daytime again. 

I understand the meaning of "Life goes on," as easily as I understand that when I focus on "Breathe in .... Breathe out" and do that a few times, I will start to relax.

So at the young age of 12 (years in Al-Anon), I finally learned what "This too shall pass" means in words that make sense even when I am not at my best.

Wanna know how happy and relieved I am about that? :)

I can't even put it into words!  But I imagine you know for yourself how it feels when you've found a way to help yourself heal/recover a little more.

I'm grateful that working my Al-Anon program helps me do what is hard for me to do on my own strength.  I am glad that I dared to ask for help instead of being worried that I might "bother" somebody by asking for help.  I'm grateful to all who offered to help and to the person who enlightened me to see that I can choose to take "This too shall pass" and "Life goes on" as meaning the same thing.

Thank you (((((Sharon/angel)))))) for posting that.

Grateful member of Al-Anon,
Sunny