In This Together

"It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: 'And this, too, shall pass away.' How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths ofaffliction!."
~Abraham Lincoln

This quotation and the comments below were sent to me this morning by Carole, my Very Dear and Darling Friend of several decades. Her gift validated the thoughts that began attacking me at my first waking, early in the day. My first awareness (upon responding to the annoyance of the alarm clock) was the tangible presence of a powerful depression. And I said, to myself, “Oh my, here we go! The first wave of this year’s ‘holiday melancholy.’ " Then I underwent the miserable exercise of forcing myself to function. (Those who have dealt with depression know the awful sensation of moving a weight of what seems like a coating of lead encompassing all of your body as you push yourself through an gelatinous environment of constricting emotional bondage that makes even the most simple of tasks an effort of extremely tiring dimension.)

All through my work I was accompanied by this presence that I am well familiar with. Every year finds me encountering an intensification of the forces of my little gift of chronic depression as the elements of the holidays present their challenges to my idealistic inclinations and predispositions to the fantasies of holiday moments filled with companionship, endearments, affections, and intimate sharings… none of which are to be realized.

I have, in years passed, coped with this crushing disparity of clashing desires and realities by opting for mindset learned from the practices of the Buddhist faith. I have learned that the state of spiritual ‘nirvana’ (ultimate peace) is achieved through the absence of both desire and fear. By desiring nothing and fearing the loss of nothing, the individual spirit is made free of all conflict and distraction. So I have implemented this thought discipline in discouraging myself from allowing any desires for the aforementioned companionships, endearments, affections, and intimate sharings, in my personal attempt to be freed from the pangs of realization of absence of them all from my daily existence. In so doing, I have entertained the hope of less unhappiness and minimalized depression (especially during the holiday period’s intensified focus on all that is not a part of my daily life.)

Unfortunately, my awareness of my life’s shortages of yearned for elements was recently brought to the surface by circumstances that have reminded me of my estrangement from my children, and my inability to be involved with my closest of friends and family due to economic constraints. This awareness has triggered an early onset of the annual holiday war with what I refer to as “The Big D.” And I had its presence as the “welcome” to my day today and my companion through my work this morning. The battle was so fierce that I actually hurried home from work in a near-panic state of need for solitude and isolation from outside stimulus.

I tell you all of this to let you know that all that I share with you on a regular basis is not some assortment of ideological philosophy spooned from a pinnacle of elevated comfort… oh no!… I am engaged in the struggles, battles, challenges, and conflicts of living life… right alongside you. And I am just as much in need of encouragement, uplifting, and support as you are. So, when I received the above-presented quotation along with its conclusions offered below, I was ministered to just as you have indicated that I have ministered to you, in messages past. Remember, My Dear Reader, we are in this thing together… you and I… and I am here for you just as Carole was here for me this morning. And you and I and Carole are making our shared world a little better… a day at a time… bit by bit… you just watch… you will see!


(The conclusion to Carole’s message)

Whatever is happening in your life at this moment, whether it is good or bad, a triumph or a tragedy -- whatever it is -- it soon will pass. When we realize how fleeting each precious moment is, we begin to appreciate them more, accepting the gift or the lesson each brings to us. If it is good we can embrace it fully, knowing it will all too soon be gone. If it is displeasing, we can breathe easy, content that in a moment this, too, shall pass away.

We did not come here to race through our moments, but to live our way through them, gloriously. Each and every one.