Ebb and flow

Ebb and flow

There is an ebb and flow of life, something easy for youth to forget, yet perhaps that is important, for being a youngling is a time of experimentation, moving out into the world, seeking to slowly express to the world who one is, to make some kind of mark, or perhaps a stand, a time of ideals, high energy, movement, a body that is more often than not, agile and strong.

Youth however is not the end all of life. Years pass ever more quickly; parents, aunts and uncles die, and even friends ones own age pass on through the dark door called death. So temporality slowly comes into focus as the middle years approach.

Many must face themselves and their failures as they march forward on their pilgrimage.
Failed marriages, careers not as successful as they desired; problems with children and with that comes the insight of ones own culpability that weaves through it all. So the surety of youth is replaced with humility. Freeing for some, a heavy burden for others; each unique how this rocky terrain is traversed. I know of none who are free of this purgation.

Many cling to youth, seeking to fool others in various ways, yet none successful for very long. Surgeries, suctions, long hours seeking to keep the body like that of a 25 year old, can become a hard taskmaster, draining life of the deeper joys that getting older can bring. Youth becoming a nostalgic longing for what never really was, for each age has its joys, suffering and yes pitfalls.

Embracing life as something temporary, that we are pilgrims moving toward our appointment with the dark door can be freeing, for clinging is a useless passion, leading to worthless desperation and it fruit is endless anxiety, even if hidden beneath the mask of endless activity.

Our journey forces inwardness, the seeking after meaning and profound understanding of what our life is about. There is more than one ‘understanding&rsqu o;; some leading to deeper meaning, others perhaps to despair for some, if not many. In end some choice is involved, bits of freedom slowly developed over the long years of right or left turns. Yet the human heart is deep, so judgment is something beyond the each ones capacity, though it is often not known the truth. So silly some judgments, based on narrow misconceptions of others, and yes even about ourselves; for we are told not to judge for a reason…….we suck at it, big time.

I would suppose it is wise to cultivate compassion for oneself and others. If not, only bitterness the possible fruit. Forgiveness flows from understanding, the ability to have empathy for others, though a struggle is always necessary. We seem to live in world of both joy and pleasure on one side and pain and woe on the other, a strange cocktail, yet we each must drink.

Every love must end, someone is usually left behind. Friendships also end, for one is taken and the other left alone. So, many seek the eternal, the love the human heart seems to truly seek. Perhaps that is what our lives are about; preparing the heart for the eternal, everything in between important and necessary, though if you are seeking some deep understanding I am not the one who can provide, except for one thing, I have grown to trust the process of this life and the grace hidden, though real, that envelops it.