Recently, I met someone who had tragically lost her son. She was devastated and even blaming herself for not doing more for her son.

It was very difficult, if not impossible, to console her. I was failing miserably with this exercise until I said: What if your creator had come to you 40 years ago and said “I will bless you with a son as my gift to you and entrust him to you for 40 years before I take him back”.  Would you have accepted the gift knowing full well that you would have to return this precious gift after 40 years?

She instantly said yes. This was the turning point in our conversation. She shifted her thinking from seeing her son’s loss as actually a gain. She realized that her son was from her but not hers. This gift was entrusted to her for a specified period.

Nothing is ours. We come with nothing and go with nothing. Everything we have been given is given to us in trust. We are the custodians of our own life!