Life is hard.
And unpredictable.
Sometimes, life will throw you a curve.
When it does, the solution is easy; you just learn to hit a curve.
But what do you do when life throws you a grenade instead?
One that goes off and disrupts and destroys nearly every aspect of your life.
Death, divorce, a diagnosis – a random act of violence.
You wake up one day, and your current life is no reflection of the life you once knew.
When this happens, I’m not going to tell you everything is going to be alright.
That is going to be up to you.
You are going to have to fight.
And even after you win the fight, the term ‘alright’ is going to take on a whole new meaning to you.
What I will tell you is to buckle up because it is going to hurt like hell.
For that, I do know.
You are going to experience hurt more intense than you can ever imagine.
Enough to paralyze you.
And when you do learn how to move again, you will be at your breaking point.
Many times over.
The pain will be enough to fill your every thought with quitting and throwing in the towel.
Don’t.
When you get pushed to the edge, to your breaking point, instead of using a period in your life, use a semi-colon.
Pause, but then go on.
There is more story left to write.
More life to live.
More love to feel.
Hang in there.
Tread water for as long as you can.
And even longer if you must.
Endurance requires purpose.
Purpose requires love.
Find yours.
The best day of your life hasn’t been lived yet.
You need to believe that.
Kindness in the universe will find you.
As you sit there looking around at the destruction in your life, what you do not yet realize is the adversity you have experienced, although devastating, has secretly given you a gift.
A gift so valuable, you will never want to relinquish it.
Although this gift is available to everyone, everyone’s too busy to recognize it.
They say, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”
You are now ready.
Look around.
At first, you may not see anything.
But I can assure you the teacher is present.
Your ascension from the depths of despair to the heights of euphoria is about to begin.
Right now, you can only see the ways your life has changed for the worse.
Those changes are obvious.
The good news, and yes there is good news, is your life can change for the better.
Significantly.
It is a universal law that when the universe takes something of value from you, it must give you the gift of the ‘seed of something greater’ in return.
One day, I don’t know when, probably sometime after all your human emotions have run their course, you will come face to face with your gift of the ‘seed of something greater.’
What you do with that seed will be totally up to you.
You can plant and nourish the seed and experience the miracle of its growth, or you can pay it no attention and allow its fruit to die, even before it gets to the vine.
Make your choice wisely.
The quality of your life depends on it.
This seed is the greatest gift you will ever be given in your life.
You don’t know that yet.
But you will in time.
If there is anything you ever trust again, trust in the fact that this seed, if planted, will produce boundless fruit in your life.
Fruit, you never knew existed.
Fruit that will nurture you back to health.
You have paid the full price for this fruit.
You might as well let it nourish you.
I will not insult you and say the fruit is in any way a fair exchange for what you have lost; or even that you should be grateful for the exchange.
I also know it is not an exchange you sought, and one if given a choice, one you would absolutely undo.
But when all is said and done, you have two choices.
You can open and use the gift.
Or not.
That is up to you.
The exchange may not be what you want in your life right now.
But it is what you have.
And it is much more valuable than you know.
I have never met a person who experienced a life-changing event, who, ever wanted to give back their newfound perspective on life.
I know you do not believe that to be true.
I believe, in time you will.
For, inside the gift lives what you lost.
And opening the gift is the only way to keep what you lost alive.
Rebuilding your life makes its spirit flourish.
And that spirit goes out into the universe to help others.
I believe that.
I know right now you want to lie down amongst the rubble in your life, to just blend into the destruction.
They say the greatest mistake is in giving up.
Don’t.
You must build again.
The normal reaction will be to try to rebuild a life exactly like the one you had before the grenade went off.
That will prove futile.
As you rebuild, if you attempt to replicate your past life you will realize if you rely on the pieces the grenade destroyed, you will come up short in comparison, as gaps and holes will emerge in your new structure, and the result will look nothing like your life before the grenade hit.
The key is to rebuild, not to replicate.
Obviously, there will be pieces of your life that will be missing.
You are going to need to be resourceful; to do more, with less.
As you rebuild, your newfound perspective of life will be your greatest asset.
And the rubble will miraculously transform into a foundation on which you will build anew.
J.K. Rowling profoundly said, “Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”
It can be done.
You should do it.
It is worth it.
Every day is a new life.
There’s many life’s waiting.
No, it will not be the same.
It can’t be.
Integral pieces are missing.
But it will be enough to make this moment matter.
And, matter it does.
Do not attempt to make answers to your unanswerable questions the prerequisite to your happiness.
I promise you what you do not currently understand, one day you will.
You need to believe that.
Your effort is better utilized teaming up with trust, belief, faith, and love.
Unconditionally.
So, pick up the first shattered piece of your life and attach it to the next.
Glue them together with love.
Keep doing that.
That is how you to build again.
To live again.
To care again.
To be you again.
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Categories: Shorts
John Passaro 
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