This is what came up today.
We all go through hard times. Dark times. Life is both.
Light and dark. Finding a graceful way to move between these two places...that
is true success.
Someone is in that dark place right now. Maybe it's you.
Here's my letter to you:
Dear Beloved,
I am not sure exactly what you're going through but I can
sense it. What I know is that all great souls have to reach some place of
darkness before a period of intense light, so that they may recognize and go
after that light. So that they will remember the other side of the coin. We
have heard of "the dark night of the soul".
My own first deep dive into the dark was when my brother died. It was sudden and traumatic and took a long time to process. And that's OK. Life is just an experiment for processing all that happens around us. We experience things as happening "to" us but really we're all just trillions of mattered-particles spinning around and bumping into eachother and it's our emotions that start clinging to "things". The harder the clinging, the bigger the lesson. It sounds so cold...that the great sages could move through deaths and losses without showing emotion. However, this was just out of a place of complete understanding that all that was happening was in many ways an illusion and quite temporary. That all that is "real" lasts forever. And when something is lost or changes, it wasn't "real" and just an experience.
So that is the question? What does actually last forever? Really? Not our bodies, our jobs, our homes, even our relationships (although I like to think some carry on with us!). What is left? Our Selves. Everything else can go in a split second.
Life seems to offer us these sometimes seemingly "terrifying, paralyzing, how-the-heck will I survive?" lessons. And I ask myself, WHY?! WHY THIS LESSON? WHAT DO I NEED TO LEARN HERE? I cry, I feel sad, sorry...but then...finally...I remember how many lessons I have payed for in my life: yoga, cooking, nutrition, dance...all areas I want to learn more about for my personal growth and to in turn help others. And what I have realized, is that sometimes we don't get to sign-up for and attend lessons, they are simply brought TO us. And these are the ones that matter most. Because God/the Universe brought them and knew we needed them and they will shape our souls into exactly the shape they need to be. IF we pass of course.
How do we pass? Well, I guess only we can know if we have moved through something with the most grace, surrender and acceptance we can muster. And each time we go through that darkness we pick up a new strength, a new tool. I wish you all of those things right now.
Be gentle with your Self. It will get better. I promise.
XOm
