Vicissitudes

 

Joe the Counselor did what Joe the Counselor was supposed to do on Monday night:

He listened to my rambling and then reflected back to me what I said,

Only he added some words of wisdom.

 

He commented,

“I want to read back to you two things that you said.

1.      I don’t want to be so negative and annoyed.

2.      I’m gonna read you the text so that I can be annoyed all over again.”

 

Then we laughed at the absurdity of my contradicting statements

And he went on to say:

“You are beautifully navigating the vicissitudes that we talked about awhile back:

Pleasure and pain (or positivity and annoyance).

Gain and loss.

Fame and disrepute.

Praise and blame/criticism.

And if you can do that—

If you can move back and forth between the ups and downs,

The highs and lows,

The positives and negatives—

And do it with a sense of levity that keeps you from becoming too serious,

Then you are truly living your life.

 

All of us,

If we are open,

Will feel each of those dichotomies at some point.

It’s normal.

It’s expected.

It’s good.

Because if can’t feel them—

If we get stuck in one part or the other—

Then our experience in life will be kind of flat

And we won’t really embrace all that this world has to offer.

 

But you are embracing it.

You are riding those waves and

You are doing it well.

Sure, you may be riding a huge wave of annoyance right now,

But you are also finding joy.

And that’s all any of us can really hope for in life.”

 

I like that Joe.

 

It’s not an either/or with him.

It’s a both/and.

It’s not the final destination.

It’s the journey.

 

And we’re all on this journey together.

Riding waves.

Laughing.

Crashing.

Crying.

Getting back up and trying again.

 

No. I’m not a surfer.

Shocking news, I know :-p.

But I can imagine the scene.

And I can see the waves.

And I bet you can, too.

 

Amen.