CLOSURE -- A BLESSING OR A BURDEN?

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Being fine-tuned to life and to things around you is a plus more than an inconvenient irritation. The latter unfortunately is how most people see most of life. I don't blame them there's more that hurts the eye or the mind or the heart than desired. What is happening now in the no longer revered walls of our congress goes top on that list. The bottom line of it all is it's a battle among the good, the bad, and the ugly. How it will end is anybody's guess. How it affects (you) us is our job.

Back to the fine-tuning.

I have observed and learned something about 'closure' from watching this TV show last night 'Burn Notice' (season 5; final season is 7).  Michael (the lead star) and his mom were talking about a young person who felt so hurt and pained by what happened to his sister caused by, of course, the bad guy in the show. It was something which she said (and I had to write it down immediately before it got lost) which struck me and it goes like this.....

"You know, people talk about closure, but I don’t buy it. People blast a hole in your life, it tends to stay open."

That made me think.

That hole in one's life therefore doesn't really disappear!? It's not just a skin-deep, superfluous, temporal thing that simply leaves on its own or goes away when the cause is eliminated (as in the TV show). It's there as real as potholes and bumps on our city streets which undergo a thousand makeovers but underneath it all still lie the hole or holes. Not wise therefore to simply gloss over a person's pain to make him feel better. So it doesn't work that way.

'A hole in your life' could mean a lot of things. A hurtful relationship, a betrayal, bad things happening to good people in your life, failures, rejection, and other mountain-size of unpleasantness, to say the least, that hits you straight where it can hurt most. That hole in your life is a core-deep experience. The core, as we know it to be, is usually that place within where you find your comfort safety and balance. But as life seems to have the knack for doing it... one day it sends something to blast through those safe walls and create a hole, a damn huge one, which then shakes up your world big time.

That hole never gets closed again, it stays open.. as Michael's mom said. But then at the end of the conversation, she hinted (smart lady) that it was up to us how to respond to it and said ... 'someone has to teach him...' and Michael went on to do just that.

What a great lesson..... to deal with the holes in our life... not meaning to close them as it never will. It may simply stay there as an ugly bump, a stinging sore and scar, or stays there as a gaping hole... defiant maybe and could hurt you again when someone or something rubs you the wrong way one day. But and BUT you don't let it define you as a person. Rather you let it be a reminder that you above all else can be stronger and smarter than you think. That you know about 'holes in our life'... it's part of the landscape, territory, tapestry, spectrum, diversity, and the reality of the good-the bad-and-the ugly ... of our existence, like it or not. That you have learned well and have become much wiser - smarter - better - and importantly in control. That you have learned to use the tools wired in you by the Divine to overcome challenge. Now isn't this what they say about true power? Honestly I'd like a piece of that. Don't you too?

Okay, I think I'll finish off season 5 tonight.
See you all next -ish!
Rainy Sunday but it's just rain.
Blessings, everyone!

IT'S A BEAUTIFUL WORLD OUT THERE

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on."

Although I’ve heard it (It's by Robert Frost) thousands of times before and lived that experience at numerous times in my life, still those lines stick out like a tree amidst a flat meadow of grass and stones. You just can’t miss it!

Life goes on – mercifully it does.

You know, I’m glad that the sun continues to rise at dawn even if in other parts of my world fortunes are tumbling down or houses are robbed clean. It’s also a great feeling of rain on my face even if my neighbor just lost his precious car to a mortgage and many lives are eaten up by cancer. It makes me smile every time that I see the cherubic face of a newborn child even if people elsewhere are burying a parent, husband, son, relative, or a friend. And I still tend to my tiny garden every morning even if the daily news tells of bombings, shootings, coup de tats, killings, scandals, divorces, floods, pestilence, and drought.

Life goes on – mercifully it does.

You know something else too, I will be sad, angry, unhappy, miserable, frustrated, disappointed, afraid, cheated, betrayed, will suffer, and what else be added to that heap life throws at us… but I will not linger in that sorry state. It might break me and crush me to the ground, or hurt me deep and leave me with scars to show for it – yes it might. But it cannot destroy me or what I stand for to myself. No, because I know that those things don’t stay there forever. But it’s there for a reason. When it has exhausted itself, done its work and is satisfied that I have learned my life lessons well, it will move on and head for another human being another life. It moves on with the same bag of tools because Life is -- a teacher too.

And I will continue to hope, trust, have faith, believe in a constant and merciful God, build dreams anew, pursue destiny, seek new learning, create new passions, conquer new horizons, and maybe learn to reinvent myself too. Who says a person can’t?!

My life will continue to turn even if the rest of the world wrestles with issues and burdens and continues to fight big silly wars. Life goes on – mercifully it does.

And to the rest of you out there going through tough times in your life, acknowledge those pains and trials – cry if you must but only for awhile - Because you will soon discover that precious time waits for no one Oh No! And that life will move on with or without you. So gather yourself and decide --whether to move on along with life or stay behind in the company of your own misery. It’s your choice. But listen, it’s a beautiful world out there and with enough opportunities adventure blessings and joy for everyone, so then why not grab some for YOU? I think that’s what God would rather that you do too.