Support.

The greatest words of consolation and sympathy I have ever received were from my mother. I will describe them here.

There was a time when I was speaking openly to my mother about the trials and tribulations I had faced. I was trying to show her my weakness, my insecurities, my faults, my fears, my losses, the nights of loneliness and uncertainty upon which I was reflecting in that moment. I was sharing with her all this, and as I was on the verge of tears, she said quietly, “Look who it made you become.”

Suffering and loss is simply a part of human nature, it is who we are and we would be lost without it. For the only way forward, is to make meaning from the loss, and beauty from the suffering. Such is the natural course of this life. All organisms on this planet experience such a war as that which takes place in the heart of each and every human. And it is not for the individual to pick and choose which battles they face, or draw boundaries upon their heart, saying to the universe, “No, you may not go there”. Instead, we must allow this world to take whatever shape it will and allow it to imprint upon our soul a journey worth more than a 10,000 years of comfort. The reason for this I will not explicate here. Instead, I will leave the reader with the simple adage; such is the nature of life. And furthermore, if the individual chooses to dig into their heart, and if the individual chooses to listen to their soul, they will find this journey to be present, evident, and eager for life.

There is beauty in the struggle and there is meaning in loss. And I pray for the humility to ask for no more than this.