The storms of life, the moments that shape us forevermore, come without the luxury of forecasts. Like a faultline ripping through the earth, your life divides into two plates that can only be described as before and after.
The storms of life, the moments that shape us forevermore, come without the luxury of forecasts. Like a faultline ripping through the earth, your life divides into two plates that can only be described as before and after.
Seismic moments and periods shift your path, your perspective, and oftentimes your purpose.
The rupturing of our life so completely underscores the devastation and ruin these times bring. While calamitous at its peak, lingering effects ripple through time, marking us with scars we may hide but never quite heal from.
Death, disease, war, genocide, loss, violence, personal traumas, internal struggles, and shocks and disturbances to our systems can all be seismic moments. We become so lost we are paralyzed without a sense of the time or place marching on without us.
Many are ill-equipped to help even if well-intentioned. Their tongues are silenced, unable to comprehend what they witness before them. Or perhaps worse, they spout phrases that cut more than they calm. These people, they will never grasp the situation or its profundity.
Only those who have walked through fire will understand. They will be the ones who will return to the flame, time and time again, to rescue those whose own feet fail them. Unprompted action, arms that salve, and ears that empathize bring us back.
When we return to the land of the present, paralysis lifted and vision coming into focus, the lens we used to view the world through appears distorted. It no longer works for what we now know to be true. The veil lifts as our dawning realization adjusts to how we not only see the world but interact with it.
The why behind these moments are best left to other philosophers, clergy, and literati. But we must grapple with what to do with this life-altering event. How do we take the first step when we cannot stand or order our body to move?
We have to find purpose.
Battling the why and unfairness of it all will set you on a spiral into a never-ending whirlpool. Center your thoughts and actions on finding purpose in the pain. Purpose will look differently for everyone; it may be prevention, awareness, advocacy, or rescue. But it may also be love, empathy, and appreciation.
To make peace with the past, you must look to the future.
Do not mire yourself in the depths. Shadows of the past will always linger on the edges of the periphery. We were not pulled from the blaze only to be consumed by it later. The greatest possession we all have is the twenty-four hours ahead of us.
Tempests of fury and wrath will continue to strike the earth. But remember it is collisions that form mountains, floods that fill rivers and lakes, hurricanes that shape the land, and fires that allow rebirth. Healing may not be immediate but will always come in due course.
Life will always find a way and a purpose.
As I hope we all do.
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