Whenever you hear someone tell about their struggles and suffering when going through their dark days and nights — how they’d never recommend doing what they did, how they went broke, hit rock bottom, lost everything, took ridiculous risks, broke laws, did remarkably stupid things, etc. — you’ll likely come to understand we all have to go through these eventualities, challenges, and horror stories.
I would absolutely recommend going through the difficult, seemingly impossible, fuck-me-why-me phases in life, because anything easier is moot, empty, transient, ineffective, and superficial. You don’t need to break any bones, but without consistent twisting, pounding, stretching and the like, our bodies and minds turn to mush, and our spirits grow restless.
You will die, no matter what. Sooner than you think. Along the way, you have to let things die; let relationships die, let careers and aspirations and goals and dreams die, let stories die, and let your adopted beliefs, programs, and conditions die.
Anything you desperately hold on to will energetically and temporally anchor you, and likely slowly but surely drown you. The river doesn’t care about your checklist, plans, education, awards, laurels, nor your victories. It’s concern is flow, truth, presence, awareness, raw spiritual nakedness, and whether you mean to utilize and alchemize your very real fears of mediocrity, complacency, ennui, and uselessness.
Productivity is not the aim. Capitalist gains are not the aim. Safety and security and freedom are not the aim. Knowing, surrender, courage, righteous anger, artistry, unbridled spirit, discernment, imagination, empathy… what’s next, and what’s now? These are our lifelong superpowers. These are the unreachable conclusions, and ever-moving goalposts. These are the gifts we employ from the beginning to the end.
Solvitur ambulando