sapient_breeze

So we’re finally doing it. Here goes nothing!

Greetings reader – what you have stumbled upon is the first piece of a greater whole that I cannot yet see nor fathom. I cannot say what will become of this, but I have pushed down the calling long enough. If I don’t even try to bring order to a chaotic world, then how can I be sure I did all I could? I cannot, so here we are.

I will not lay out the greater vision, but it will unfold if you are paying attention. Today, I’d like to reflect on first steps, on beginnings. To begin anew is to also bring about an ending… one cannot come without another. This dichotomy is important to remember, since we can be energized and delighted by new beginnings. Don’t mistake me, always look to the good of such beginnings… but it is an opportunity to reflect on that which is ending, and that this new beginning may too one day find an end.

If you can temper your heart, you can navigate life’s many endings without falling too deeply into despair. Easy to say, for every major life change marks a death of sorts. Part of you dies with the loved ones you lose, or the job you leave, or the school you gratuate from. Bring mindfulness to this pain, and try to frame it with the greater opportunities that lie before you.

If you should find yourself suffering a truly heartbreaking loss, I know that those opportunities may seem gray and lifeless compared to the color of your past joys. Always permit yourself time to grieve. Never run from your pain if you can help it. Look the darkness square in the face, and see the pain for what it is: a deeply profound, yet normal, part of the human experience. Now YOU know real suffering, real pain. Don’t run from it, distract yourself from it, or lie to yourself about it. Pain like this is the purest path to growth, and ultimately happiness.

You don’t have to believe me if you’re in the darkness now, but believe this: you are going to be okay; you will smile again. You may feel alone, and perhaps you think that’s good, but force yourself to find the company of those truest. As with a sick child that doesn’t feel like eating, you must take care of yourself. Remember that you are not so small anymore, and that you are stronger than you think. The pain, the suffering, the tragedy… it tempers you as truly as any blacksmith would temper steel in the hottest forge.

A life with no suffering is a life without joy. So if you feel these words, you are actually the lucky ones… for others have to wait to be tested by this universe. You, have already passed.