No one is bitter who receives a gift. Likewise, we become bitter only when we cannot find the gift in a situation, and thus experience only pain and hardship. In bitterness, we often feel something better (sweet) was denied or taken from us.
My first step: try and find the valuable lesson necessary for my inner growth that the situation is trying to bring me. When I find it, this insight becomes a gift and the situation the giver of the gift. And since he who receives a gift cannot be bitter, then I find the bitterness dissolve. The time it takes to get to this point will vary.
The choice is the sincere effort to seek the treasure that each experience brings, in joy and sorrow. It is not easy, but the effort is worthwhile.
~Dr. Ikenna Q. Ezealah
Foundation for Ascent 