Knowledge may be power,
but Wisdom is powerful. We love to know stuff. It seems we thrive
on it judging by the very designation of this present time - The Information
Age. Yet still, (and perhaps especially now), we are ever but beginning
to uncover the notion that the more we know, the less we know -
and that some knowledge is far dearer than the most of it. There
are some losses than cannot be measured by simple lack, but in terms of
the entire bottom dropping out within the microcosm of our selves. I’m
talking about the “Dark Night of The Soul”. When the inner flame has seemingly
been snuffed out. It is a time when Doubt rules our entire unique individual
universe… and feels tailor-made by Hell itself no matter the encounter.
Some call it Depression or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder,
triggered after one or several singular losses or trials in our lives.
Sometimes it happens in between life events, catching us unaware and unprepared.
It could be our past catching up with us, or less, or more… or questions
within ourselves long ignored, coming to the fore. Yet little can prepare
us for the likes no matter the source. It is a time when all we have previously
believed in and trusted has seemingly forsaken us. Left us in the Dark…
When our essence, our very core, is seemingly stripped to the bone and
we feel naked, vulnerable, and ashamed before The Four Winds. In the maelstrom
it is hard to find, let alone hear, the voice within. It is a time of reckoning,
yet without the benefit of engaging nor seemingly possessing our previously
innate strengths and wisdom. It is utterly devastating. And it happens
to most of us…
Yet, it is also said (albeit not blithely) that Chaos
is simply the rearrangement of things that were not ‘right’ in the first
place. It is ‘a beginning’ we hold in no high esteem, for it is indeed
a time of reckoning, usually in slow increments. It is a time of deep and
often painful reevaluations after one feels forced to resolve the matter
and will no longer haplessly succumb. Yet some do not bother, not being
accustomed to Inner Battle. And needless to say this is not a strategy
we are commonly taught to engage in, let alone that a meaningful search
could signify anything other than weakness and shortcomings. Some are indeed
left truly bereft, yet will live the rest of their days in a stalemate
of bitterness with their remaining energy, instead of seeking resolution.
Some may not begin to not know where to reach, enduring a silent perpetual
death. And while some would and do ask for help, it appears that even in
this “Information Age”, the request is not a familiar nor comfortable one
to the many. Often we’d rather ignore ‘the fallen’, not wishing to acknowledge
that weakness in ourselves. With so much ‘knowledge’, how could we be vulnerable?
Yet until we plumb the depths, and not only look to the heights of the
Human Soul, truly, we know nothing… In so much as we may gaze across the
vast expanse of the Oceans, yet do not know what lies beneath…
And what of ‘falling’… to the depths… is it so bad? To
be Human… to doubt, to feel pain… The utter humiliation may be the worst
of it. But where does that humiliation come from? Is the source all from
within ourselves and our own doubts… or does it come from the voices around
as well. The voices that tells us again and again that the throe of ‘falling’
is far too close to the Powerlessness we hold over Death itself… and that
we forever fear a new life we cannot conceive of in this moment…
~ Often, a crisis of
faith is but a detour in understanding…
This week,
I hereby invite you all
to write your own poem
about plumbing the depths of your sadness,
to make friends with it,
no matter what it may be…
no matter the words…
whether Past or Present,
with peace made,
in still seeking ~
or out of compassion…
