"This Too Shall Pass"

This phrase is most often imparted to encourage someone during a difficult time but isn't it significant to all the time?

Every moment we are experiencing - good, bad or otherwise indifferent - will ultimately pass and we will be confronted with the next event and its subsequent emotion to absorb.

I recently had an outstanding day (February 26 to be exact) - - one of those days where everything seems sanctioned by a benevolent, higher order and falls perfectly into place. I spent this day and the weekend that followed feeling light and inflated; my feet floating inches above the earth with a dreamy smile on my face.

As is often the case, however, karma wanted to ensure I was kept in good balance and so this blissful day was followed by a really difficult one – a day when I felt as if everything around me was closing in and threatening to collapse. A day I felt I couldn’t breathe.

I am certainly aware of others who struggle and juggle more – those whose pain is far greater than I can possibly conceive and yet “bad days” are all fairly subjective. Considering someone else’s suffering might, on occasion, put your own in perspective but it doesn’t really negate the fact that one of your days has gone to complete and utter shit.

During my bad day – a day when I reflected on the happiness of February 26 as if it were a far and distant memory rather than a mere 72 hours later - I felt hopeless, foul, irritated and overwhelmed. I suspected I looked as much, too, and so I snapped a photo of myself at a stop light in an effort to capture the emotion I was wearing and projecting to the world – an act of honesty I hoped would snap me out of it or at least encourage me to “fake it ‘til I make it.”

Instead, what I captured was this overlapping beam of sun making its way across my sad and dour expression:

While I do believe that - regardless of what hardship we are enduring - there is always something brighter waiting for the opportunity to make its entrance, it occurred to me that the real truth of this shot is that fortune and misfortune will ebb and flow in our lives, bringing with them the sense of being blessed and damned. Like every moment, each will most certainly pass but it is the often overlooked union of the two - the invisible connector bestowing its wise gifts - that makes our lives and our moments that much more meaningful.

I am grateful for both.