There Are No Accidents (KB)

There are two perspectives we can have about anything and everything we experience and/or witness. The first perspective is the consciousness of—“take a look at them,” or “why are they doing this to me?” The second perspective is when we can ask ourselves, “Why are they in my experience?” “Why am I seeing this?” And, “Thank you for being in my experience because now I can take responsibility and release whatever negativity came up in me through this encounter.” One of the teachings of the great 18th Century Kabbalist The Baal Shem Tov is the concept called Hashgachah Pratis (Specific Divine Providence)—the idea that nothing happens by accident. Everything we experience comes to us for a reason. Even if, for example, we trip and bust our nose, we need to understand that it wasn’t an accident. There is some place we put our nose where it shouldn’t have been. There is always a lesson, a message, and/or an opportunity in whatever comes our way. These two perspectives apply to ANYTHING that is around us—anything that we struggle with, any negativity, tension, or lack of human dignity that we experience or bear witness to. And true healing of these things comes from the second perspective— the perspective of self-responsibility— because when we can infuse a situation with that type of consciousness, we start to connect to the Light directly.