The Way of the World

Things happen, and as usual, even the phrase "things happen," tends to lend itself to the things that occur which are out of our control.

You love someone with all your heart, you twirl and create and love and make and do, and it might work out, or not.

You work for an organization you love, you fight for it, with it, in it, you shed tears and you work your butt off, and the organization still has it's own karma interwoven with that of each of those it touches, and it will either make it, or not, and you will either be a part of it, or not.

You bring a child into the world and hover protectively to keep him or her safe from danger, bad food, chemicals, scary people; you do everything "right" and one day you wake up and your child has developed autism, or is diagnosed with cancer, or diabetes, or heart problems or something else. You turn around and no amount of love can keep your heart from breaking when your child is the pin cushion, or when nothing can change the diagnosis.

All that protection and all that love, everything we surrender and sacrifice, every piece of ourselves that we give, every moment the heart is so fully engaged in compassionate and selfless loving - and it's still the way of the world that even the things we love have their own processes and paths in life, their own karmic play out.

We seek reasons for it, but who knows why some live and some die, some things survive and some don't, some children live carefree lives and some are afflicted with concerns even adults would struggle with. Is there any real comfort for it? Or are these only tests - another opportunity to find equanimity, another opportunity to let go of preconceptions about the way things have to be, another opportunity to let go of judgment that this or that is just not right. It is what it is, it is the way of the world.

For what is life when we withdraw? A life without love, without passion, without compassion, without commitment, without giving of ourselves in the deepest way possible would be a life wasted. Life comes with the consequences of whatever it comes with. We can only keep up with heads up, eyes wide open, and willingness to open and to love again. It comes down to this, in order to survive, we have to confront the brutal facts and retain faith that we will prevail, no matter what.

Life is full of funny twists and amazing paths - and rarely is it anything like we would have imagined or planned. And that's ok, because the human heart is amazing in itself - it's up to it all. We can go through so much and still come out better people from what we learn if only we are willing to love again.

Blessings.
- Darshan

© 2009 Darshan F Jessop