http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/c%27est_la_vie
"That's life." How many times have you heard that expression in reference to a bad thing, an unfair occurrence, or after registering a complaint to a parent, employer, or friend? If you're a parent, how many times have you found yourself saying it to your offspring?
It's a non-committal phrase which tries to capture the unexplainable, the random events which may or may not be disappointing, and those which seem untouchable but still affect us.
Frank Sinatra sang about it, Americans and others have borrowed it, and somehow it does a fine job of summing up our existence here on earth at times. Resigning ourselves to the straightaways and curves life takes can be quite a process, one we occasionally don't wish to traverse.
When I experienced the reality and dichotomy of writing novels and the publishing world, I had to get to the place where I could say "C'est la vie" and mean it. Believe it or not, I'm there. How about you? Where in your life did you have to come to terms with the expression and admit either reluctantly or contentedly "That's life"?
Father, you're the only One I know who can bring peace into the phrase "C'est la vie". Thank you for that. It's sometimes - maybe often for some of us - a tough road to get there, but with your steadying hand, we make it. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.