The Blissification: endurance

Showing posts with label endurance. Show all posts

I am by no means superstitious. However, on days when things either fall into place or fall apart, I do heed the signs bestowed upon me by my surroundings, controlled by the forces that be.

For example, when I do all the things that could possibly end up terribly wrong, and survive unscathed, I stop pushing my luck. I appreciate and realize the notion that perhaps, in this place and time, I belong where I am.

When things fall apart - when everything seems to be going wrong, and I have to travel somewhere, or I have some mundane appointment to go to, I stay home. If unusual things happen to prevent my day from going as planned, especially if I had out of the ordinary plans in place, I just let whatever is supposed to happen, and not stress about it. When things break, or accidents happen; when the day goes by so unusually wrong, yet I am left standing, I know better than to complain about the little things. Instead, I amount it to the Universe's only way of telling me where I go from here.

A little less than a year ago, I came across a profound statement.

Time is the most valuable currency.

This struck me as an epiphany because ever since I had been able to work, I, like most people, was mistaken in thinking that the only time that had value in it was when I was on the clock for a job. I am so thankful that an enlightened soul shared this notion. Life is so incredibly short. It saddens me that people's lives are so filled with having to earn a living and not spending enough time enjoying whatever pleases them.

There are many people who are unable to get work right now. To them, I want to say. When you spend your time doing something, whether it be at a job, or with a person, you invest your time. I understand that life is stressful and bills need to be paid, but if you are still here, without risking sounding insensitive or condescending, I will dare to say it could be so much worse. No amount of money can buy you more time. For as long as you are still here, things will get better. They might get worse before they get better, but if you're all the way down in the downy-dumps, as they say, there is nowhere else to go but up.

When you are wealthy in the time department, enrich your life and the lives of those around you. Teach yourself something new, even if you can't afford to go back to school, indulge yourself at the public library. Teach yourself how to sew, paint, crochet, dance - Find Your Thing. Then, do your thing. Feed your soul. Find your joy. Time is of the essence, and every second wasted is a second you can never earn back. Just because you are jobless, does not make you worthless. Invest your time in yourself, invest your time wisely. Unemployment leaves you free to do whatever you've always wanted to do, but couldn't, because you had to commit your time to work. Your time to work will come again, and in your free moments, you can go back to doing that thing you didn't know you loved to do.

Most of the accomplishments worth undertaking are ever easy. The process of getting from Point A to Point B makes getting to Point B worth the effort.

This can be applied to anything, whether it be about getting nearly a decade's worth of post-secondary education, to landing a job, to getting over a break-up, or learning something new about one's self.

The cost of the outcome is the $truggle.

I will apply this to situations that occur on a mundane basis. I am rarely sick, and I have succumb to the flu for the past six days. I loathe the sensation of being physically incapacitated. I don't know about you, but when I first feel ill, I am in denial and want to do all the normal things I do had I not come down with some ailment. I try to be up and about, I even try exercising it out (I ran six miles in forty minutes until I felt truly rotten). Mentally allowing myself to be ill is somewhat of a process. Then, it hits, and I become exhausted to the point of becoming unable to rise from bed. About two days into being sick, I forgot what it felt like to be well. I then remembered that whenever I was well, I forget what being sick felt like, although I know I dislike it immensely (not that anyone likes to be sick), but it made me think about how wired we are to live in the moment. When I am weakened by sickness in bed, all I am is is ill, and being well becomes a distant, foreign experience.

As much as I forgot what being well was like, I at least knew I had something wonderful to look forward to.

Suffering through the flu was a reminder that I had being well to look forward to. Dumb reminder, I know, but the feeling of peace that comes with knowing that the outcome will be better than the process felt familiar. Kind of like whenever I felt famished to the point of vertigo and nausea, but not panicked because I knew I would soon be fed; suffering through the tedious work on a project because pouring my heart and soul into it would yield nothing less than stellar results; suffering through a really awful job because money is necessary, then seeing all the zeros in my bank account.

I then remember that those situations I have taken for granted all my life, some people exist in. That is the state within which they live. Constant illness, hunger, thirst, injustice, working until their knuckles are bare, and laboring through the worst conditions - seeing the light at the end of the tunnel but never being able to reach it, exists all over the world, every day. Innocent people who are born and punished for no reason, never live to feel relief. Although my experiences in suffering are so very insignificant compared to those which exist in humanity, it is my only way to empathize. I know I can't help strangers who are sick, starving families, those who live in a land where drought kills, hard workers who do not get compensated.

I am no one. Just a person whose idea of suffering involves having the sniffles and laying in bed. I do, however, know what it feels like to yearn for better. There is still a light at the end of the tunnel, and each day, I pray and hope and work toward that result which will put me in a better position than I am in today. While I do that; while I do what I need to for myself, I try to do what I can for those who have nothing but hope and faith that someday they will feel better, food will come, clean water will be pumped, and fair wages will be granted to them.

It is 2011, and today is Women's Equality Day. I am not sure what I should be celebrating. Anatomically, I don't ever expect to equal a man. A man does not have the power to sustain life within him for nine months then excruciatingly give birth to that life, only to use his body to nourish it. I get it. This is a man's world, but technically, women already run it.

Human rights, fundamental rights bestowed upon all those who breathe on this planet are taken for granted by so many, and are denied to so many more. There is a way to help change things, even in the tiniest way possible.

The beauty in suffering is that it is the one thing all members of the human race have in common.