As long as we see what has come to pass as
being unfair, we’ll be a prisoner of
what might have been.
This is a very painful issue to discuss for most of us, because so much of how we see the world hinges on a sense of fairness and justice, those truly noble human concepts that govern how we treat each other.
But the laws of experience in the natural world, in which we have no choice but to live, do not work this way. Rather, the larger Universe, of which humankind is a small part, is a world of endless possibility and endless cycle, a world in which life forms come and go, a world itself that has erupted and reformed countless times.
This is why the Hindu tradition has a deity known as Vishnu, who both destroys and bestows life, often in that order. Although fairness and justice are beautiful gravities by which we as human creatures try to live with one another, the storm and the germ, the termites eating the foundation of your home, the errant stone breaking your windshield, the wave swamping your little boat—these molecules of experience do not understand what is fair. They just bombard us in the endless cosmic dance of life that just keeps happening.
When I was struggling with cancer, I was asked repeatedly to release my anger at the injustice of having cancer. Quite honestly, I felt a great many things—fear, pain, anxiety, frustration, uncertainty, exhaustion—but I did not feel that having cancer was unjust. When was I or anyone promised perfect health? An ant can struggle for yards with food in its mouth only to have a dead limb tired of hanging on crush it. What makes human beings presume to be exempt from such things?
I know now that, over the years, my own cries that life is unfair have come from the inescapable pain of living, and these cries, while understandable, have always diverted me from the re-formation of my life. Somehow, crying “Unfair” has always kept me stuck in what hurts.
I offer what has surprised me in my pain: that life is not fair, but unending in its capacity to change us; that compassion is fair and feeling is just; and that we are not responsible for all that befalls us, only for how we receive it and for how we hold each other up along the way.
~Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening
pathwriter 
Reblogged this on Writings From Dr. Oolie's Pond and commented:
I was thinking of how “unfair” life can be and then saw this. What timing.
I was just thinking about how unfair life can be and saw this in my “reader”. What timing.
It was good timing for me, too. For the past couple of days, I’ve been working on a piece about a time in my life that was deeply painful for me and which I thought at the time was very unfair. When I read this piece by Nepo, I realized that, although the pain of the experience hasn’t gone away completely, I no longer think of the situation in terms of fairness or unfairness…which I guess is progress. :)
I understand you and hopefully everything is 100% better. Injustices are as you said, part of this realm. Gratitude certainly helps us gain perspective for me. Blessings dear~ Deborah
Thanks, Deborah. As with most losses, time heals. And, as you say, gratitude for the blessings we do have. :) Viki
This is beautiful. I so agree that life is not about being fair, it’s about presenting us with opportunities to make that journey back to wholeness, to home. Thank you for posting this, Viki. It really spoke to my heart and addresses the thoughts I have been having lately and the truths I am seeing.
You’re welcome, Brenda. I’ve been working with this issue for several years now, without really realizing it until recently. One of my oft-repeated phrases has become, “It is what it is.” And I go from there. Fair or unfair, we are all presented with challenges…how we choose to respond is what’s most important.