How does the universe talk to you?

I'd been driving past a billboard for a couple of weeks now, thinking how cheesy the slogan is, until 2 weekends ago, when I suddenly saw the message in a new light.

It's an ad for a news station here, with a silver-haired, senior news presenter looking smugly authoritative, above the slogan, "Trust the experience". I can't stand news channels, or the garbage they shove in our faces and I saw the slogan as a typical media attempt to get us to feel reassured, or impressed with the credentials of the experienced news castor.

I'll put it down to the effects of the meditation I'd done that morning, but when I drove past the sign last, it suddenly hit me like a lightning bolt, that it was the universe trying to tell me something important.

"Trust the experience", suddenly meant, 'trust life'. Trust the experience of my life. It's not just a bad joke. It's not just an unfortunate series of mishaps, designed to grind me down to a mere shadow of myself. It's all important stuff, every little detail and eventually in its unfolding and with a grander perspective of it all, I'll be better able to make sense of it- even the really crappy stuff.

It's a tough message to integrate. How can I trust in the experiences which seem to be driving me to shut down from others who do not appear to have my best interests at heart? How can I trust in experiences which cause a whole lot of pain and frustration?

I think it's all about perspective. I made a prayer at the start of this year, that I would no longer feel like a victim. I recognised that this was a mode I had somehow fallen into. We all do, at times, I suppose, but it was clear to me that this was a ruling attitude. I think there's been a shift, but every now and then, the old anger arises, when I feel trodden on.

It's a tricky line to walk, between being assertive and letting others know when they have done the wrong thing, to having the kind of understanding of events, that we can just let stuff go gracefully, all the while trying not to feel overwhelmed about the breakdown of relationships and society, that lead to enormous suffering.

Well, that's one way the universe talks to me, how about you?