Sunday, February 3, 2013

THE BREAKING POINT

THE BREAKING POINT
 
Life can break you. There is no argument there. There is nothing that can protect you from the all too frequent messes, pain and just plain garbage that life drops in our laps.  I have thought a great deal about this, my life, my agonies and defeats and lost dreams and yes the successes. 
 
What sees us through these pathways of life?  What bolsters us up when we don't think we can take it any longer? My conclusion ~ love!  You have to feel it and ultimately come to realize it is the reason we are on this earth.  We are all here to risk our hearts, in one way or another.
 

Love of friends, family, oneself, dogs, music, travel, works of art, history, the sea, beauty, books, flowers,  a clean house, and soft, clean, silky blankets to curl up in when you are at the breaking point....are all there for us when we are at the breaking point. Yours may be substantially different from mine, but we are here to risk our heart, our lives, our passion, our treasures, and come face to face with the tiny moments where we find what we have been looking for, hoping for. These can be little things that for the moment bring a smile to our face and joy for a time.
 
Yesterday a friend sent me a photograph of his two turtles munching on broccoli and a kitten playing and snuggling with them. It was a precious photograph.  Another friend sent me a photo of her pet rabbit in a caterpillar costume. Both of these people are experiencing great, deep pain right now.  One the loss of his wife of 28 years and the other a warrior with tremendous battles to overcome on a daily and hourly basis. Yet in two photographs it showed me they still, although at the breaking point, were reaching out and were not allowing themselves to be swallowed up.  Perhaps the answer is when you are at this place you have to risk your heart, if you find yourself broken or betrayed, alone or hurt, or if death brushes way too near. You just might need to find a small moment to cherish and handle and savor with great care.
 
Tasting the sweetness of these moments doesn't make the pain vanish, but it does allow you to remember that there is life beyond the pain and you often have to quite literally force yourself to find the sweetness of a single second, a moment. 
 
Sometimes we have to be our own angels. 
 
We all have our ways of overcoming 'stuff' when we are at the breaking point.  But the singular point is that we try and that we help others try. We have to find our own moments and help others to find theirs.

"When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs.  When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence." ~ Ansel Adams
 
For me, I find my sanity and peace and joy and moments in the world of writing.  It focuses me, centers me, puts me back together.  There is a saying in the writing world: "If you can't feel it, you can't write it."
 
Whether in photographs of turtles and kittens and rabbits or simply sitting with a cup of hazelnut coffee at the computer, looking out the window at the pastel blue breaking through the early Sunday morning clouds, I find my emotions are heavy and deep and poignant. Our feelings are a huge part of what it is to be human. 
 
Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets. Ignore those people and circumstances who try to break you, brush them aside. For it is quite true that everything happens for a reason. And ultimately it is only hurting them, as they show you who and what they really are.
 
"The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love, and to be greater than our suffering." ~ Ben Okri
 
Listen to others and to your own silent cries for love.  Inspire others and in so doing you will also inspire yourself. Your life, the way you live it, is your message to the world.  Make certain it is inspiring!!
 
~ " Be a LAMP, be a LIFEBOAT, be a LADDER.  Help someone's soul heal today.  Walk out of your house like a shepherd. ~Rumi
 
Even if you find it is your own soul you are saving.

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