Sunday, December 12, 2010

Finding Treasure Through Loss

Life has a funny way of nourishing us. In response to our desire to be more, do more and have more, it often yanks the rug from beneath our feet and leaves us with what appears to be less. We scramble to our feet and rush forward only to find ourselves racing toward what appears to be nowhere. Like children deprived of their cookies, we whine and wonder how life can be so mean.

All the while, we miss the treasure being offered to us through loss. Caught in the belief that amassing stuff and attention benefits us, we overlook the wonders that more stuff and attention often hide. We resist the process of revealing gems by stripping away the outer covering.

Certainly loss exposes us to vulnerability and uncertainty. It can be terrifying and debilitating. Yet, if we can willingly enter the openings life brings and allow them to chip away at our preconceived ideas of what is gain, loss can make known a deeper wealth.

2 comments:

  1. This is so wise, and so true ... and I know it to be so, with crystalline clarity. Why, then, is it so hard? The immature part of me, that's attached, and scared, roars about the loss - and leaves me unable to see, over and over again, the treasure that is often left there.

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  2. Thanks, Lindsay. Perhaps the hardness of seeing the treasures in loss is also part of the gift. Maybe, the wearing away of out limiting occurs through rubbing against the obstacles in our path. Like the image posted with the text, it was the slow chipping against the hard stone that revealed the beauty if the design. I believe life's wisdom in loving and precise and the hardness comes from our resistance. The mind wants to rush ahead, but it's an organic process and there is a gift in the time it takes.

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