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1-Page Summary of Stitches

Overview

It’s inevitable that we’ll have negative experiences in life. But what allows us to keep going?

All of our experiences are held together by the communities that we belong to. We can find meaning in life through these connections and love for others.

And that’s what you’ll learn in this article. It will provide insights into the meaning of life and why it can be difficult to find.

In this article, you will discover how to feel better about yourself by not pushing yourself too hard and by understanding that it’s okay to be sensitive. You’ll also learn why you should stop beating yourself up if someone says you’re too sensitive, as well as why hearing about tragedies can make even the most insensitive people cry.

Big Idea #1: It’s easy to find meaning in life when everything is going well, but it can be tricky when the going gets tough.

Isn’t it amazing when life is going well? You’re healthy, have a job you love and everything feels like it’s in the right place.

It’s common for people to feel that life is good when they experience positive events, and this tendency has to do with how we’re able to find meaning in the things that happen. Simply put, it’s easier for us to see a purpose in what happens if our lives are going well.

We often feel that our lives are meaningless because we don’t have a clear vision of what the future holds. We find meaning in things like finding a job we love, but if we do achieve those things, they reinforce our sense of meaning. If something goes wrong or doesn’t go as planned, it feels negative and painful. Similarly, people tend to associate failure with stigma and bad feelings.

Given this tendency, it should come as no surprise that when we experience suffering or difficult moments, we find it hard to feel positive about life and believe in its meaning. Just consider catastrophic events like terrorist attacks or natural disasters; they make us question the meaning of life itself.

In such instances, it doesn’t even matter if the event happens to us or someone else. In fact, all people are affected by things that happen to other people because they’re part of the human community.

We’re all connected by bad experiences. For example, if someone murders another person, the rest of society is partially responsible because they live in the same human community as that murderer. It’s not a total downer to realize this; there are actually many things we can gain from negative experiences and you’ll learn how to cope with life’s struggles below.

Big Idea #2: Life is a hodgepodge of good and bad experiences, and the latter have a lot to teach us.

Nobody likes to experience pain. But nobody looks forward to the good times either. In reality, life is a mix of both and all experiences teach us something about ourselves.

Life is like a patchwork quilt, comprised of countless different moments. It has patches that have been repaired and repeated sections that are improvised. The only thing we can do is take it one stitch at a time.

People tend to think that their lives should fit together seamlessly. They expect to graduate from high school, go to college, find a career and build a family.

Even though people have a general idea of what will happen in the future, they don’t know exactly how things will play out. In addition, people aren’t encouraged to think about how things might go wrong. This is surprising because bad events happen every day and are unavoidable. However, if we can accept that these bad events are part of life, we can learn from them and become stronger as a result.

In a way, we can never get over our greatest losses because the pain they spur will always be with us. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.