In Times of Great Distress

It is true when they say that the world continues to spin when your own has halted. And it is true as well that bad things happen in threes. It is true that dwelling on the past does nothing for your future. And it is true that all good things must come to an end. All the proverbs and witticisms and advice passed down through generations are true- but they don’t make the experience of living anything less than exactly what it is.

In times of great distress I try to compartmentalize my feelings. I try to sort and label and rationalize them so that I know exactly what I am feeling and why I am feeling it. I like to believe that if I have the exact words to define my emotions I can somehow spare myself the actual process of feeling. But sometimes word’s aren’t enough. Sometimes my thoughts are muddled and intertwined and confused and there is no rationalization that might make them easier to endure. In those times, I must remind myself that feeling is okay. That it is necessary.

We all have more or less the same experiences. We fall in love, we fall out of love, we choose the right friends, we choose the wrong ones, we try new things, we seek fulfillment, we art hurt, we are lost, we are found, we endure, and we continue. We share these universal experiences, yet every loss is tragic. Every victory is euphoric. Every experience, regardless of its universality, is felt fully and profoundly. No proverb or saying or wisdom will ever be enough to completely convey the experience of grief or love or fear or unadulterated happiness.

All I am trying to say in this post is that it is necessary to feel and to do so without shame or inhibition. It is okay not to understand why you are feeling a certain way. It is okay not to know. It is important to allow the mind and body to express itself- to cry, scream, laugh, run, jump, dance. Sometimes we feel the way we do and the reason is unimportant. To be human is to be alive. And to be alive is to feel. And sometimes, we are simply and amazingly human.

-Sophie