Thursday, February 5, 2015

A Message of Hope

I'm in the kitchen. Baking. Listening to music.

I'm listening to a great song. One with a message.

I wrote about that song before. It's called Conversation in the Womb and is about two unborn children-both unsure about the next world. One is an optimist and one a pessimist.

Just as the song finishes, I crack open an egg and see...twin eggs.

I crack eggs all the time. When are they ever twins? Just about never. But this time, there they are. Cute, two little yellow yolks in one eggshell.

I think about the song I just listened to, that I so quickly dismissed as soon as the next song started to play. I want to internalize this message.

I think about the climax of the song. When the optimist baby gives out a scream because he has finally entered the next stage of life. The pessimist, hearing the piercing cry, assumes it's all over, his brother must have died. But this is not death, it is actually an entrance into a whole, new, beautiful life. 

In life, we go through challenges. We can either be pessimistic about the tests we've been given, thinking of them as the end. 

The screams of pain...what are they? 

Does that mean everything is all over?

The optimist says, No, it's not over. This is just a new beginning. The beginning of a whole new life.

Yes, we are tested in life. Yes, sometimes we need to cry out. But that cry should be a message to us...a message of hope.

When things get tough and you wonder how you will go on, try to look at it with this new perspective. 

These specific challenges are here to form you. To create you. They will give you a whole new life. Your life will not be the same as it used to be, sitting in a protective little bubble. Now that you've been exposed to the harsh realities of this world, look at is as a chance for rebirth. For renewal. You are on your way to becoming a new being.

The optimist realizes that the pain he is experiencing is the pain of transition. But this transition will open up a new world for him. No longer will he be protected by his mother. He will now step out into this world and have the opportunity to become a different person. To laugh, to play, to interact, to make a difference.

The pessimist sees this cry, the pain of challenge as the end. This is it. There is no life past this. He cannot even deal with the thought of transition. 

Let us try to be like the optimist, realizing and internalizing that change, although hard, can bring us to better places. Transition is painful. But by going through that difficult phase, we can become different people. We won't be stuck in patterns of the past. We will be able to create new realities for ourselves in our lives.

Two eggs in the shell. Two babies in the womb. A message of hope.