We often look for ways to avoid suffering.
Spirituality is built on the idea that we should accept it.
Suffering is inevitable.
The strategies we put in place to ignore it, delay it, push it away, hide it... not only don't work but, over time, create more suffering.
The good news: all we have to do is accept the suffering of the present moment.
Even when everything seems to suggest it will never end, even when our brain tries to convince us it's here to stay, our only job is to accept the suffering that's showing up right here, right now.
Next year's pain, tomorrow's pain, or even the pain one minute from now... is not our problem.
This is an important distinction made (among others) by Eastern philosophy: in a lifetime, pain is inevitable, while suffering is manufactured.
The plans we make to avoid one are the cause of the other.
So let's start by dealing with the present.
We'll handle the future when it gets here.