Everything happens for a reason I make up

"Mysteries are not necessarily miracles."
-- James Baldwin

Life is a confusing mess. You get blindsided by a drunk driver. You fall in love when you least expect to. Your firstborn becomes an accountant. Things happen that bring you great pain or pleasure and change your life forever. To find your bearings amid such chaos, you choose to believe that these events happen for a reason. It was meant to be, you tell yourself, and this comforts you. But to live truthfully, you must forgo this comfort. You must accept that there is no cosmic plan -- just a story you tell yourself after the fact. As you try to weave each twist and turn of your life into some coherent whole, you artfully fashion the meaning you need. Things are not meant to be, they are made to mean.

Everything happens for a reason I make up.

Reprinted with permission from "Daily Afflictions" by Andrew Boyd, published by W.W. Norton. To order a copy, click here