Patience and equanimity

A hard reality for many people to accept is that there are no guarantees. No matter how perfectly you organize your life, difficulties will still arise - some minor and some devastating. To believe that "it shouldn't be this way" is a prescription for suffering and unhappiness:

Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better to take things as they come along with patience and equanimity.

-- Carl Jung

Here's where the practices of compassion and lovingkindness become so important. Regardless of our situation - whether it is an easy time or a dark time - we can make the sincere wish or prayer for ourselves and others to be free from suffering and to know happiness. This practice in and of itself will help alleviate our own suffering during difficult times.