What's the Nugget?

It seems to me that what we expect to remember about our lives and what we actually think about when we're reminiscing are usually quite different. A friend of mine once remarked that life is more like a slide show than a news reel, and I'm inclined to agree.

I went hunting with some friends in Virginia once a few years ago. After a harrowing climb up a tree stand with very skinny steps and no rails I sat in the cold and waited for a deer that never came for about three hours. By all accounts the trip was a failure, but about halfway through I heard something behind me so I turned to look. One tree over, maybe about eight feet, was a woodpecker, blissfully unaware of my presence. "Maybe this is it," I thought. "Maybe seeing this bird is the nugget." It turns out that it was.

I'm of the opinion that our lives are ordered in such a way as to provide us opportunities for moral development, and it follows from that that there is something to learn from every situation. for some things, like touching a hot stove, the lesson is immediately clear. For others, like cancer, it's a complicated answer that unfolds over time. But there's a nugget in there somewhere, every time.

It doesn't eliminate the fear and discomfort of life to know that it's possible to grow from everything you do, but it certainly can add some perspective.

Of course, this only works if you think you'll live forever somewhere, and will benefit from those lessons indefinitely.

Just my two cents.