Sometimes it takes swimming through murky waters, to recognize when you are in clear waters. When we dive head first into the depths of darkness, we feel lost, scared, confused, hopeless, when we see the light again, we are rebirthed, we come out with a whole new perspective about what really matters on this crazy journey. We are humbled and pulled to a place of gratitude. We are inspired and ignited with an exuberance for life. This place can be difficult to reach without having ventured in uncertainty and suffering. We have to be lost, to be found. It is not the light or the darkness, but both in which bring us closer to our highest selves. It is confusion before clarity. It is pain before joy. It is low before high.

Darkness is not what we should be afraid of, trial is not what we should be afraid of, pain is not what we should be afraid of. These things are all only one step behind something else, everything leading to something greater, everything creating a beautiful masterpiece, what we call the big picture. It is all part of the big picture, it all connects, and one aspect is often dependent on another aspects existence in this immaculate big picture.

We can live our lives blind to what really matters. Unsatisfied with what we have, wanting more, chasing more, craving more. Seeing problems more than solutions, seeing fear more than love. Trying to control outcomes outside of our control until we self sabotage without even meaning to. Recreating our pasts. Sometimes we are swimming in crisp, clear, refreshing water, wishing to be swimming in a different ocean. We so badly want a different ocean that we begin creating this cesspool. The crazy thing is, we fight to get back to the ocean we never appreciated, and once we do, we see how beautiful that crisp water is, how clear we can see, how refreshed we feel. It was always there, it wasn’t circumstances that changed, it ended up being us who changed, and saw our circumstances differently.