Life is like a game of Phase 10

I love a good analogy.  The other day I was contemplating life and areas where I struggle and I came up with this one.  

I decided that for me, life is like a game of Phase 10. 

Everyone is dealt their own hand of cards to work with.

These are not the cards you have to play with the entire game (or your entire life), just this round you are currently in. 

When you play Phase 10, sometimes you are dealt awesome cards.  It's easy to finish that round.  You can relax and enjoy the game and the people you play it with.  It's fun to be successful multiple rounds in a row. 

Phase 10 is a usually kind of a long game.  And I'd say with an average life expectancy of 70 years, life ain’t no game of Go Fish either.  You're gonna be playing for a while.  So inevitably, you are going to be dealt a round of NOT awesome cards.  Challenging cards.  Cards that are hard to work with.  Cards that make you really have to work and pay attention in order to meet your current goal.  Some rounds, your hand of cards is such a mess that you don't meet your goal that round.  You have to continue and try it again.

So here is where I apply it to ME:

I have been so blessed.  I feel as though I have been dealt hand after hand after hand, of AMAZING cards to play with.

BUT, I look around the table at others who are also playing.  Some players I know very well, some are only people I hear about in the news.  I see the cards they are dealt.  They are struggling.  Some, round, after round, after round, have hard cards dealt.  They must struggle, and fight, in order to play their rounds.  And here I sit with my awesome hand.

I feel badly.  And this is where I struggle.  I have a hard time enjoying my own awesome cards.  It's not fair that I am SO blessed.  How can I be happy, without feeling almost guilty about it, cause so many others are suffering through trials?  I don't have an answer for this question.  I know that the game of life is not meant to be played focusing on how everyone else must play.  But I have a hard time not being effected by watching.

Struggle number 2:

An area where I silently struggle a lot, is thinking about what cards I will be dealt in the future.  My thoughts often wander to really hard card possibilities.  (Cards I've seen others had to play with.)  I think about what it would be like to have to play with those cards.  I stress about how I would play, needlessly making plans for cards I have not yet been dealt.
 As I pondered this whole card game analogy, I realized that this particular struggle came down to this:  I have so much in my life right now that makes me happy.  I fear that I won't be strong enough to still feel happy with those hard cards in my hand. 

I need to have faith in my own ability to choose to be happy and enjoy life's card game, despite a bad hand.

As I said.  I love analogies.  Labeling things and putting my feelings into words is very therapeutic to me.