"The wound is the place where the Light enters you." ~ Rumi
I'm writing in a hotel room identical to the one I woke up in on Thanksgiving Day 2008. Not true. I never went to sleep. I was up all night living through the deepest contrast I had ever created in my life. At the time, I didn't realize it was all me. I did not realize I was the sole shepherdess of that which I herded in and out of my life -- the words, the actions, the reactions -- the people. No. I just knew that who I was, in the moments of that night, and who I wanted to be, in all the moments after, were so severely estranged that there would be no way either of me would be able to recognize the other if I were to pass myself on the street. I look back on that night with deep and abiding gratitude. So deep, I can feel it from head to toes. I can taste it on my tongue and feel it burning in my eyes. Sometimes, I have to force it back down into me fearing it might explode through my chest. The gratitude isn't just for the assured reunion of myself but it is also for the healing that is slowing taking place and returning all lingering aspects of that night towards Love.* All this gratitude makes it easy to look back on but, in all honesty, I never dreamed I'd return to this hotel. What beautiful closure to awaken to such a beautiful morning so refreshed.
"Find a place inside where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain." ~ Joseph Campbell
*Feel free to impose your darkest moments on my words. We each have lived some darkness. Sometimes that darkness becomes an entire life. But it does not have to. Just a simple choice to look around for people, places and things to feel thankful for ~ to truly feel that thankfulness ~ can become the lifeline to a new life. Is it really that simple?
Yes.
In my humble opinion.