Finding you.
I have lived long enough to know that the universe is not an easy place in which to live. Life is messy. Life is painful. Life hurts. Each of us will pass through times of joy, and times of struggle. Times of pleasure, and times of pain.
Times where you can see the way forward clearly, and times when you are so afraid to move because it hurts so much to take one more step.
I have come to believe that the darkest times are when we get a true glimpse of the light of our soul. Naked, alone, afraid and forlorn, we come to a moment where ‘all we have’ is who we are.
And sometimes ‘all we have’ doesn’t seem to be very much at all.
There is a phrase in wisdom literature… “The Dark Night of the Soul”. It is used to describe those times where you can’t see a way forward, and your own light seems very dim against the darkness surrounding you. Where the very powers of Hell seem stacked against you, and you feel no hope.
In these times, I try to remember all the Dark Nights that I have survived before. I try to tell myself that what I see now is not necessarily the truth of what will come to pass. I try to breathe deep, hope hard, live in faith and take one more step.
I’m not telling you that it’s easy, it’s not. It is so NOT easy. It hurts, and it hurts badly.
Sometimes, the only thing that has helped me get through is to just try something. At least if I am trying, and it all goes bad, I have the knowledge that I tried, and that may be the only solace left to me.
Sometimes the only good out of a bad situation will be the things you put in there.
If you are going through your own Dark Night, please keep going forwards. Please know that there will come a morning, with a light to support you and to guide you. Even though you cannot see it, feel it or even believe it right now, the light will come.
Until then, I implore you to find yourself in the darkness, and hold onto who you are.
You have worth. You have potential. You are special.
You are.
-- Dr. Alan Barnes
@maddrbmusings