March 26th, 2019
No matter what happens, life goes on. I remember years ago, standing at my Mother’s grave as they lowered her casket into the ground and I looked around at that moment. Off in the distance the traffic was going by like any other morning, people were walking to work and others were standing and chatting at the bus stop.
How could that be, I wondered. Why hadn’t the entire world stopped because my world had stopped? Didn’t they know? How could this be just another day to the rest of the world? “Mom just died unexpectedly. Why are you not stopping and grieving?” I shouted mentally to everyone I saw.
The world in fact did go on and my life did too. This past weekend I found myself in physical pain and that’s not new but this time it was accompanied by a darkness I hadn’t seen in some time.
Every thought I had was smudged with darkness. Every problem suddenly seemed unsolvable. Every hill seemed too steep to climb.
I looked out into the street and I saw the neighbors talking and driving and tending to their houses and I thought: How could they be doing such useless tasks when everything is going so wrong?
I made the mistake again. I saw my world as THE world. I saw only what agreed with how I was feeling and I dismissed everything to the contrary.
When we, you and I, find ourselves beset by darkness and or pain we have an uncanny ability to forget every uplifting thought we ever had. We criticize our life first and then given enough time we criticize all of life.
I can’t say that I have the universal cure for this but these are the five steps I take. First, I ask for help. No, I’m not strong enough to ask others. Instead, I ask God and the spirit world to help me. Second, I set a strict timeline for when I am going to start fighting my way out of this. Third, I force myself to remember that my view of EVERYTHING is greatly influenced by how I feel. Fourth, I constantly remind myself that I have made it through this before. Fifth, I tell myself over and over again that life goes on and this world has never seen a night without a dawn and neither have I.
If you are suffering from loss or pain or darkness I don’t know your specific pain but I know of such pain. My wish for you is that you find the strength to hold on until dawn and that dawn’s light brings you renewal. Love and Blessings, Patrick
Sundrops On Life -Better Thoughts. Better Days.
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