No Worries

If a problem can be solved, there is no need to worry.

If a problem can’t be solved, there is no need to worry.

– Shantideva, Buddhist Philosopher

This was my philosophy of life.

They were fine words to hang on to. I wasn’t living up to them, that’s part of being human. Some times what we try to do, what we aim to do, says as much as what we achieve.

I’ve learned in the last few weeks, few months, that there is another kind of problem. The kind that solve themselves. Where the solution is patience, and sympathy and the support of good people and most important of all, time.

I’m not a good person for problems like that. My attitude to problems, I’m told a universally male attitude, is to try and fix things. To tinker, tweak and refine the solution until there is the perfect instant solution.

I’m learning to rein this part of me in, accepting that I can’t fix those things which it’s not for me to fix.

Sometimes the solution is inaction. Sometimes the solution requires just your faith that there is a solution. Sometimes a solution is nothing like the solution you want to create.