each day, we're given many opportunities to open up or shut down. the most precious opportunity presents itself when we come to the place where think we cant handle whatever is happening. it's too much. it's gone too far, we feel bad about ourselves. theres no way we can manipulate the situation to make ourselves come out looking good, no matter how hard we try, it just wont work . basically life has nailed us.

most of us do not take these situations as teachings. we automatically hate them. we run like crazy. we use all kinds of way to escape – all addictions stem from this moment when we meet our edge and we just cant stand it. we feel we have to soften it, pad it with something, and we become addicted to whatever it is that seems to ease the pain. in fact, the rampant materialism that we see in the world stems from this moment, there are so many ways that have been dreamt up to entertain us away from the moment. soften its hard edge, deaden it so we dont have to feel the full impact of the pain that arises when we cannot manipulate the situation to make come out looking fine.