Build something out of them. Collect each and every one of them and erect them instead of leaving them wasted in the dirt. Pain is tragic only if wasted, the stone bruise won’t heal if a stone is not reappropriated. None of us can choose all that gets thrown our way, but we can control some things although most of it is just coincidence and entangling of swords over your head of things we have no control of. Disease won’t pick and choose, death won’t either, a personal or business catastrophe won’t, socio-economic conditions or natural catastrophes won’t as well… And it doesn’t matter that you can’t control everything (although if you’re even a bit obsessive as we are you’re still learning to accept this fact and you have to learn it over and over again through life).

The answer to deal with this is not to put your life into the hands of some larger than life entity to have no responsibility, to fall back on predetermines theories such as kismet or destiny, divine interventions doing the director’s cut of your life… The answer is to realize you can’t control all that comes your way but you can sure as hell decide what you do with it – crying about the thrown stones or kneeling into the dirt and picking them up humbled by having been given these building blocks. If you build a shelter from the first batch of rocks you’ll be more protected from those that follow.

Some of the worst times you’ll go through will shape you the most and you decide on the shape. The Indian culture got it right – there are no predeterminations – your life is your karma, you are in charge, you build the story, you decide if you’re going to get up or stay slumped in the corner, and you will be pushed into a corner in one point or another, most likely more times than you care to think about. Get up, dust off, breathe, think and then act, grab those stones and start building. All that you see now started out as a series of failures.