13/03/2020
When life creates a crisis, it is a redirection: we have steered too far away from where we were meant to be.
The call to redirect starts with a whisper: we notice a nagging sense of something missing, a longing, a sense of dissatisfaction with an aspect of our lives.
Most of the time we do not take the whisper seriously. We try to suppress the inconvenient feelings, afraid of the disruption to our status quo a change would represent. Often we don’t even hear the whisper. So life gets louder. Life then taps us on a shoulder by creating a disturbing event or two. Some information may surface that would give us the impetus to make the necessary changes.
If we are still too paralyzed to change anything, and continue escaping, numbing and denying, life hits us with a crisis. It usually takes away that to which we were holding on too tightly for our sense of self-worth. It often takes away that which we were afraid to lose, what prevented us from making changes voluntarily.
In the resulting void, when the habitual ways of existence are no longer available, when the outside structures have been disrupted, we become aware of the inner directive, the inner voice, that inner guidance that will help us survive, if we are willing.
This is the moment where people may opt out of life. When we’ve lost our identity and do not yet have a new one. It is also called the Dark Night of the Soul.
Those of us who are lucky to have found something or someone - a connection to life that could keep us afloat - find that life meets us on the other side.
When we face the abyss that contains our greatest fears, and take a risk toward something that excites us and scares us at the same time - we start collaborating with life. We discover an invisible structure. Life supports us. Holds us up. Guides us. Sends help. Sends messengers. Sends love. Life embraces us and helps us heal our wounds.
Art: Mia Ohki
