This is one of the popular sayings out there that has screwed with my mental health significantly. I’d pin this under toxic positivity, because it has lead me to feel so much guilt and shame for wishing that some horrible events had just not happened when people have told me there is a “reason” for it, especially if it’s described as outside of my ability to understand. Sometimes, shit just happens and there is no meaning in it.
That’s not to say that in retrospect we can’t find meaning in some of the shit that has happened to us or even just in the world and that we are who we are partly because of these things. But I sincerely believe we don’t have to own the shit. I also believe it can keep us from making choices to prevent that type of shit from happening again! If it’s “meant to be” then how actively are we going to keep things from happening in the future…
(Side note, this was share on social media by a friend of mine who is a chaplain at a hospice facility).