The ego decides how it wants the future to be and when things turn out differently, it is unprepared for the new reality, and instead of accepting things as they are, generates fear and anger like a spoilt child. The ego wants everything to be static and under its control, but almost nothing is really under its control. Everything is changing. That is what life does and what we do too because we are part of it.

There is the divided mind which likes to worry, particularly if there is nothing else to occupy it; and there is the quiet observer, the listener. This is the intuitive awareness that is always there for us and is never ruffled or despairing — like a good parent is always there — when we are prepared to turn to it. Sometimes in meditation or out walking in the land, you are aware of a quietness, a calm that can take in any troubles and worries, and rest the tired spirit. Not for nothing did Ajahn Chah call meditation ‘The holiday of the heart’.

John Aske
From Living Through Difficult Times

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