Self-Realization
“Your
own self-realization is the greatest service you can render the
world.”
Ramana
Maharshi
Every human lifetime is a
journey into the unknown. We have a plan, and we go about executing
the plan, but there are so many spontaneous events that we simply
can't see coming. We think of them as wrong turns, blind alleys,
mistakes, even disasters. Truth is, they may not be wrong at all. Our
lives may have a course of which we are consciously unaware, and only
in retrospect can we realize its true meaning.
I've had several
conversations with friends lately about events in their lives or in the
lives of their loved ones that have all the hallmarks of tragedy—a
fall that does permanent spinal damage, a broken tree limb that
renders a young man paraplegic, a brutal parent, the sudden death of
a parent or a child, an incident of abuse by a trusted person, a car
accident, a diagnosis, an addiction—all events that change the
course of a human life. We cannot predict these things, we cannot plan for
them, and when they come, we are completely thrown off balance. They
are pivotal in that we are forced to redefine who we are and how we
function in the world.
While unexpected events,
whether good or ill, shape us, challenge us, and sometimes, break our
hearts, they do not have to be a death sentence. We must grieve,
certainly, we must have time to lament, and some of us need more time
than others, but we do not have to assume that brokenness, whether in
body or in spirit, will render us useless. We can learn to be whole
in our brokenness; we can even come to see it as a strength.
The journey toward
self-realization has many twists and turns; at times it resembles a
curvy mountain road with backward turning bends. This is the
challenge of any human lifetime; no one is exempt. We make choices,
but also, choices are made for us by the hand of fate. It is our task
to walk this path and to find within it what makes us whole. What is
the gift that we have to offer, hammered out of the fiery forge of
creation? In the words of singer Lena Horne: “It's not the load
that breaks you down. It's the way you carry it.”
In the Spirit,
Jane
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