~~Something I have learned is that you just don't know how anything is ever going to really go. And you are going to hurt hard on some days. You will experience loss and tragedy and rejection. Nothing can protect you from that. Not money. Not power. Not even love. But you will also experience beauty and healing and surprises that soften the walls around your heart. They won't always make the painful moments feel worthwhile. But sometimes they will. And that's something we all deserve to experience. That feeling of growing flowers where there used to be just wasteland.~~ S.C. Lourie
I marvel at people. The tenacity that makes us get back up after life knocks us to our knees. The graceful rise after a crashing fall. And even the day to day routine that is made precious by all life's miracles we take time to stop and appreciate.
We try. We retreat. We wait. We crumble. But we take that next breath and that next step and we hope for comfort...for relief...for a miracle.
When we quit smoking, all the loss we experience...and the tragedy and the rejection....are felt without the crutch of addiction. Please remember that smoking doesn't in fact make life better, but it does mask our pain through the chemical reactions of addiction to the brain. The hurt is still there and will reappear once the cigarette is stubbed out, but for a few moments in time the pain is faded while we instead poison our lungs and heart and bodies.
We hurt hard on some days. And there is really nothing else to do but to feel that hurt. Don't fight it, don't hide from it, don't minimize it. Just feel it, nurture it, walk with it. Sounds funny, I know, but that hurt needs us to be there. And on those days that we experience beauty and healing and surprises that soften the walls around our hearts, we need to feel that, too. That feeling of growing flowers where there used to be just wasteland. Those feelings like peace....like serenity...like contentment...even joy.
I marvel at people. Those who hurt but reach out to help others. Those who walk quietly with someone in pain. Those who lift the rejected and welcome the lonely. We are all a miracle to someone else, you know. And we are all needed in some way. So learn to feel without smoking. Learn to cope without addiction. Learn to grow those flowers where once there was only wasteland.
Loving you all,
Sheri
