It is in crisis that what we have hidden from ourselves and each other is often exposed. Lessons, not very pleasant lessons, are taught.
What is learned is another matter.
When a family health crisis threatens to take your beloved child, you can’t help but notice the fragility of all of your lifelong efforts. What can you say when that which you have lovingly nurtured for years is threatened by forces beyond your control?
People under this kind of pressure have varying reactions. And who is to judge?
In crisis we learn about the depth of our faith, if any. Some never believed. Others believe, but its conditional –be good to me and I will acknowledge you…. for others faith is shaken and for others deepened.
It is a humbling experience, when you recognize how little you control, how little you ever controlled…. what is left is profound grief, and oddly gratitude for the gifts you have received, and even more oddly a stunning joy that surfaces, when the inessential is cleared away.
You can rail against the fates for what that is worth. But in the end there is little left but to accept, with compassion our place in the stream of life…. not quite as important than we thought we were, but at the same time, more important than we ever thought possible, each playing our role, making an often unknown contribution to the whole …
