Experience is the fuel for opportunity. The things that happen to us provide the chance to make our choices. It is like being dealt a hand of cards. You can’t control what you are given but you do get to decide how to play.
 
We are so scared of imperfection. We are frightened because experience is also the cause of pain. To avoid being hurt, we assume we must avoid experience. But if we avoid experience, we also sacrifice the opportunity to exercise our character and influence the world around us. 
 
In trying to control our circumstances, we kill our opportunities. We have become people of apathy. Complacency is our highest ideal. We long for easy street, comfort, predictability, security.
 
No matter how much we try, we cannot fully control our circumstances. We cannot keep the pain at bay. We cannot eliminate risk or silence difficulty. What we can do is adopt a different perspective about our experiences.
 
Circumstances are not the finish line. They arrive and we think they are the finish line. Then, we somehow seem surprised that a new set is waiting in the wings. Circumstances are more like a checkpoint than an ending. They remind us that we are on the journey and have choices to make.