Greetings Everyone, Welcome to the podcast “Close to the Bone.” I’m Carl Vreeland, your host. It’s been a long time. But I’m back. This is episode #60, it’s called, “Is Life Not Going Your Way?”

Firstly, you’re not alone. Life doesn’t always go our way. In fact, many times unwanted things come our way. So, what to do about it? Kick and scream? Shout that life isn’t fair? Complain about it? Curse the world? Well, you have the choice to do that if you so desire. But may I suggest an alternative. Something that may seem counterintuitive at first. I suggest surrender. Surrender what you want for what is. And simply accept what is. You might exclaim, “Surrender, are you serious?” Yes, I am serious. But I understand your rejection of this suggestion. I mean, one just has to define surrender to understand your reaction.

According to Merriam Webster, surrender is defined as. . .

to yield to the power, control, or possession of another upon compulsion or demand
to give up completely or agree to forgo especially in favor of another
to give (oneself) up into the power of another especially as a prisoner
to give (oneself) over to something (such as an influence)

Well, that’s not desirable. So, as we see, surrendering is not something we would willingly want to do. It’s represents weakness, giving up, quitting, submission, and humiliation in some cases. Surrendering is relinquishing control and admitting defeat. It’s waving a white flag. And so we say, no thank you, we’d rather win, stand our ground, never give up, and fight to the death. And so we do this. We fight for social justice, stand up to injustice, annihilated our enemies, destroy the disease of addiction, and battle cancer. Yes, we human beings are fighters and survivors. This is why we still exist as a species. In a chaotic and unpredictable world only the strong survive; survival of fittest, adapt, adjust, and hence reproduce. And many of us believe we are the rulers of our environment here on earth. I imagine the dinosaurs, if they were capable of higher thought, would have felt the same way.

All that said, the truth is, a meteorite, global earthquakes, a great flood, or even a virus could wipe out the human race quite quickly. And life would go on for the planet. So much for being the rulers of the earth. No, the laws of nature, Mother Nature, if you will, rules. Yes, we are resilient, but we are not, as the politicians claimed in an advertising campaign used in response to Hurricane Sandy, “stronger than the storm.” We cannot control our environment, just as we can’t predict our fate. Anything can happen at any time, and there is little or nothing we can do about it. We can suddenly contract a fatal disease or get hit by a bus and die. And that thought may conjure up immense fear, which is why we fool ourselves into thinking that we can control our destiny, our lives, and the lives of others, and Mother Nature’s whims. Indeed, the truth