You've made a choice to let go of the daily demands,
To drop into your center.
You are here.
Inhale.
You are okay.
Exhale.
Welcome to a hit of hope.
I was standing in my kitchen recently,
And suddenly I was overtaken by an overwhelming sense of fragility and fear.
How small we humans really are.
How breakable.
How capable of hurt and loss,
Pain and suffering.
Inhale.
Exhale.
It was a normal Tuesday.
There was nothing wrong in my life.
It's just that as I stood there,
There was so much that could go wrong,
That could go right,
And I had so little control over any of it.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Philosophy lovers out there will recognize this was a brief moment of existential angst,
That condition of questioning,
Meaning,
Purpose,
Value.
In moments like this,
It can be easy to get lost in feelings of futility.
What's the point is the question that often arises.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Maybe you've had your own moments like this,
When it felt like the bottom of the universe dropped away,
And there you were falling into an endless darkness.
A moment when the weight and terror of being a fragile human being overtook you.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Some would argue we should avoid those moments entirely,
Or if we find ourselves in one,
We ought to get out of it as quickly as possible.
Others say we need these moments to realize how fleeting our time is here,
So we can commit to making the most of it.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Moments like I had in the kitchen are unsettling,
To say the least,
So I'm not sure we need to seek them out,
But if we find ourselves in the middle of existential despair,
We might see those moments as things that can offer us a sudden clarity of how precious this absurd experience of being human is.
Inhale.
Exhale.
One lesson present in moments like this is that there's nothing wrong with us if we experience existential angst or despair.
If we consider the world and what it means to be human in that world and what it means to be human in a world experiencing a pandemic,
Why it's surprising that all of us aren't overwhelmed by an existential crisis all the time.
So let's be gentle with ourselves and our spirits in those moments when it's just too much.
Inhale.
Exhale.
A second thing is a truth that is so damn hard to learn.
It's that meaning doesn't come from the outside.
Finding our meaning has to be an inside job.
We have to find our own answers to what it means to be human.
There is nothing we can buy or achieve that is ultimately going to bring us meaning.
Life's meaning comes not from what we do or own or achieve,
But how we live.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Exhale.
One last thing to consider.
Some philosophers say there are choices we can make in the midst of an existential crisis to help us weather those moments.
One is to anchor,
To fix our minds on a value,
An ideal,
A practice that grounds us.
For instance,
My three values that I live by every single day are move,
Create,
And nourish.
For the most part,
They anchor my days and give my life meaning.
Listening to another meditation is a great practice that can provide us an anchor.
So is taking a walk,
Doing yoga,
Loving on a pet,
Having coffee with a trusted friend.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Another choice we can make is sublimation,
And that's a refocusing of our energy.
If our energy is tangled up in terror and despair,
Can we meet that moment and hold that fact with care?
Can we breathe some more and see how we might gradually free and refocus our energy?
What does that look like?
Well,
Chances are if you are feeling alone,
Others are too.
So one way to handle our despair might be to listen to the beautiful nudge,
To reach out to a friend who is also struggling.
Or we might get lost in a garden and marvel at how the blossoms put out all kinds of sweet stuff,
And how the bees are all too ready to heed that call.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Life is beautiful.
Life is terrifying.
The flower that blooms will be the flower that goes away.
We can anchor in our breath.
We can decide how we want to live.
We can free our energy from the clutches of our eyes.
We can free our energy from the clutches of fear,
Letting our energy flow with warmth and light so that it spreads into this world,
Where we can love,
Live,
And shine.
Live light.
