Watford Bridge of Peace

Diamonds are made under pressure

Life is full of ups and downs. We all experience difficult challenging situations in our lives: we struggle with sickness, our children give us great concerns and worries, we struggle financially or we lose a loved one. How are we reacting to those challenges? Are we victims and defeated or are we taking responsibility for our situation and winning?

People who have gone through great tribulation and came out of it in a positive manner, are people of greater heart and depth able to understand other suffering and bring comfort.

Which precious stone is the most valued in our society? Diamond. Do you know how diamonds are formed? Diamond is made of carbon graphite (what you find in a pencil. When you look at carbon graphite it does not look very special. It has a greyish colour, not very attractive or interesting. But under great pressure and heat it becomes a beautiful precious diamond. They mostly form in the Earth's mantle, the layer beneath the crust or surface layer, at a depth of about 150km. Are we simple carbon graphite or are we diamonds?

Sometimes hearing about what people have gone through give us a perspective on our own difficulties and we find that after all what I am going through isn’t as bad as what this person is going through. When we think what people in Syria are going through, in Africa with the ebola epidemy, famines ...So much suffering and pain in this world. How can we transform those situations? How can we heal our world? How can we comfort and help others in time of suffering? It starts by healing our self. How not to be defeated by our pains but take them to be a source of change and greater goodness. Many people start charity to help others after a tragedy in their own life. The UN was created after the Second World War; people were tired of conflicts and suffering they wanted an end to all that. It is all in the mind, how we cope with challenging situations it either destroy us or it make us stronger with a deeper and more compassionate heart.

Are we carbon graphite or are we diamonds?

22/03/2015

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