Hello and welcome to another episode of the Secular Buddhism Podcast.

This is episode number 147.

I am your host, Noah Rasheda.

And today I'm going to talk about the unexpected joy that sometimes comes from difficult events.

As always keep in mind you don't need to use what you learn from Buddhism.

To be a Buddhist you can use what you learn to be a better whatever you already are.

If you're interested in learning more about Buddhism check out my book No Nonsense

Buddhism for Beginners on Amazon or check out the first five episodes of the podcast.

You can find those first five episodes easily by visiting SecularBudism.com and clicking

on the start here link.

If you're looking for a community to practice with and to interact with consider becoming

a patron by visiting SecularBudism.com and clicking the link to join our community.

For today's podcast episode I wanted to talk a little bit about a new pet that I have.

A cat named Taz, specifically a three-legged cat.

And I want to tell you the story and tie this in with the overall idea that sometimes

unexpected joy comes from difficult circumstances or difficult events.

I often refer to the analogy of life being like a Tetris game where the pieces that show

up we don't necessarily have control over what those pieces are.

But when they do show up we do the best that we can with those pieces to make them fit

the best way we can into the game and before we know it we're dealing with new pieces.

And I really like that analogy and I think it's important to recognize that this isn't

about liking the pieces that we get.

...