Growing Pains

       Awhile back, in a catalog from Shambhala Publications, I found a book by David Richo titled: The Five Things We Cannot Change…and the Happiness We Find by Embracing Them.

       The five things are:

1.      Everything changes and ends.

2.    Things do not always go according to plan.

3.    Life is not always fair.

4.    Pain is a part of life.

5.    People are not loving and loyal all the time.

       Right next door in the catalog is another book by Richo:  How to be an Adult in Relationship.  This one, apparently, focuses, not so much on finding the ideal mate, but on developing our own capacity to love and to be more realistic in relationship.

        As I sit here imagining what these books are like, I suspect that Richo's writing echoes life's persistent invitation to grow – and to grow up. 

       I feel an old resistance to growing up.  I remember old growing pains.  I wonder about a connection between the resistance and the pain.