“The Universe never said we would not face stormy moments in our life. What she did promise was to give us grace in the midst of the storm” – Waleuska Lazo

In Spanish, we have a powerful saying, Dios aprieta pero no ahorca “God squeezes but doesn’t strangle” which means that every adversity, heartbreak, and failure carries with it the potential for you to benefit and grow from your hurtful experiences.

I’ve come to appreciate how true this actually is. The Universe is always there to protect us. In the midst of despair, just when we think she has abandoned us, the Universe embraces us. Of course, when we are in the midst of the storm it is impossible to see or even contemplate how something devastating could contain an equal or greater benefit for our life. Grief can often blind us, preventing us from seeing the gift the Universe has built for us in the experience.

Many years back I suffered a horrible experience. Let’s just say I was definitely left in the middle of the darkest of storms. I was thrown into an abyss of an ocean of pain where I was drowning. The enormity of my grief and shame caused me to see no way out. In the vast waters, there was no land on my horizon. There was no possible way for me to know the direction in which to swim, if swimming was even a possibility.

Now here is the interesting part. Unbeknownst to me, the Universe had arranged that the person chosen to be my wound inflictor would also be the same person to throw me a rope down into the abyss. This was a rope that I caught and pulled with all my might. That rope that my wound giver threw me would later become the very tool that saved me.

Days prior to the dark event taking place, my soon-to-be wound inflictor mentioned in passing that at a party the night before he overheard someone talking about an intuitive spiritual coach who works with people one-on-one. “I think this is something you would really enjoy as it is right up your alley,” he said as he handed me a piece of paper with a name and a phone number.

Little did I know the magnitude of that divine action. A casual gesture in passing without much thought on his part and yet a well-orchestrated plan from the Universe.

That intuitive spiritual coach was the rope that I pulled on to get myself out of the abyss. What I find interesting is the way the Universe worked in her perfect way. I did not realize it then but I see it now. The Universe, in her infinite love and wisdom, wrapped in my heartbreak the very tool for its own healing. Today, after that door slammed shut, a bigger and better life opened up for me. A life that could only have become possible from spending time in the storm.

From my grief, I discovered my true passion for writing. All this led me to write books on personal transformation and to finally live a life that I am proud of. The Universe indeed had a plan for my life, a plan that required me, for whatever reason, to be broken enough to allow my true light and destiny to shine through my wounds.

That light has led me to become a Gratitude Coach where I have the honor of helping people from around the world transform their life through developing the powerful habit of living their lives in gratitude.

I now see that the plans of the Universe are always perfect. We may not understand or see it at the moment, but we must learn to trust that the Universe will bring us through.

Clearly, not every storm we face in our lives comes to destroy us but some come to protect us. I invite you to think of a traumatic event in your life and see if you can make the connection of a solution or a benefit that was wrapped in such an event for you to discover.

A repairman came to my house last week to fix my furnace and I noticed he was walking with a cane. When I inquired what had happened, he told me he had suffered a stroke. He went on to further tell me that the stroke had actually saved his life. Had he not suffered the stroke; he would not have gone into the hospital where they discovered he had stage three Lyme disease. Without this event, his Lyme disease would have remained untreated as he had never felt any of the major symptoms. The doctors explained how fortunate he was. Had they not started treatment right away, the disease would have gone into his nervous system, heart and possibly spread all over his joints. A stroke of good luck!

What do you think, coincidence or another divine plan of the Universe?
Like these two stories here, there are probably countless ones of a symbiotic relationship between our storms and our salvation. What is yours?

Trust that each storm brings you the opportunity for a gift. The next time you complain about an illness consider that perhaps that illness has come to alert you of something that requires attention and thus can save your life. Maybe that accident you had that wrecked your car is what protected you, that betrayal that shook your foundation was perhaps needed to prepare you to grow and evolve, that job you lost was to push you towards your actual destiny, that relationship that broke you is what perhaps cleared the path to a better life.

Stay in faith as there are divine forces working for you that you cannot see in the middle of the storm. Your job is to stay open to seeing as every adversity holds the tools to help you come out victorious. I am a strong believer that the Universe never allows us to indefinitely suffer —that’s something we choose for ourselves. As with any major storm, its rain, winds, and lightning can sometimes disrupt, but the aftermath always brings calmness, clear skies, much insight and if you are opened to realize the gift, you may even be lucky enough to see the rainbow.

With Gratitude