Jaclyn Day's Reviews > Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change

I am exhausted of these books and the fact that I am so tired tells me that I probably need them all the more, that I am burning out because they are the right thing, that I am unwilling to internalize them because they are so potent. The point of this book—and others like it—is that resistance is futile, that to be whole, we must lean into the dogs that chase us in the night, that we must accept the hard things, the angry things; we must meet darkness in full, move within it and then, perhaps, we will find enlightenment.

It’s a hefty promise and a simple premise but deceptive too. Frustrating. The acceptance mindset of Buddhist principles like the three vows Chodron discusses in Living Beautifully feels as timeless as the day and night, but that doesn’t make it any easier to put into action. Knowledge is not always freedom. Sometimes it’s the light coming through the bars on the cage that you are too tired to break out of.