Difficulties in Life come from a variety of sources: 1] Self (both inherent genetics, the fruit of prior decisions and difficulties which we seek out) 2] Your

Difficulties in Life come from a variety of sources: 1] Self (both inherent genetics, the fruit of prior decisions and difficulties which we seek out) 2] Your Circle (family, friends, coworkers, neighbors; think about the things those people do to you, the difficulties that you experience when someone close to you has their own life blow up, and difficulties that you willingly take on because you love someone close to you) 3] Society (your time and place in human history and culture, war & peace, societal level cycle of economic recession or boom times and more) 4] Nature (natural conditions such as storms, floods and drought may impact you) 5] Accidents (lapses in attention, stupid decisions by strangers and sheer randomness can dramatically change your life) 6] Controversial Category - Cosmic or Supernatural forces, ranging from notions of karma to spirits of the world, to ancestral spirits or monotheistic belief systems. Understanding the sources of our difficulties does not make them go away but it can help us identify which ones we have leverage to change, which ones we can only change through relational cooperation, which ones will likely pass with time and those difficult circumstances over which we have no power and must come to a place of peace and acceptance. Difficulties can be the key stimuli for personal growth or they can be the seed of bitterness which consume our mind, emotions and will with discouragement, anger, jealousy and despair. Some would say that religion has nothing useful to say about these matters. I am not saying that every religion has something useful, in fact on various relevant points religions may disagree about sources and solutions. But we should not imagine that we are the first, or wisest in human history to have struggled with these hard questions. Please don't give up. Search, work, try, experiment and grow.