Those who know love know its facility in all matters; others find it useful occasionally
while the broken-hearted bitterly laugh and deny love altogether.
Can you hear in their laughter
the sound of heaven?
The Universe is not to blame for the separation. It has never turned his back on you. Blame is the disease which blinds you to unity’s truth.
Wake up; the nightmare is over.
The light is in them as well as in you.
The thinnest of veils divides the two.
You are one Self.
You are not weak, but strong.
You are not limited, but unlimited.
You are not unloved, but much beloved.
You have suffered only for this: that you may bless those who suffer still.
~The Tao of Healing
Much like the statement, “everything happens for a reason,” this poem comforts me when I am going through a difficult time. It reminds me that I am transitioning over from the side of the unsullied and the innocent to the side of the ones who have lived and experienced—the side which houses those who have been broken and have mended, whose wings have been clipped and then re-grown, the ones who have failed and recovered—the ones who have been made all-the-wiser for the experiences they have had.
This is the side where compassion lives. It is from this side, the side of the lived, that the view is the most spectacular. We are able to see the crossing of the innocent. We know when they have fallen. We are able to reach out and gently guide them through the rocky trenches of hopelessness to our side of rebirth.
Sadly, some of them don’t make it. The river of bitterness between us consumes them. We do not forget them, however. We hold them in our hearts because we remember how close we came once ourselves to getting lost in that river. We recognize the innocence we had before the pain and the let down and the knowing that it would all be OK—that all the tears and doubt will eventually wash away—that the first shine of sun after the rainstorm is absolutely inevitable.
We walk next to them, as they crawl through disappointment and anger, telling them stories of our hurt and our healing, so they know they are not alone and that a renewed self is possible.
We reach out our hands, as someone else once did for us, and help them to stand. We support them as they limp through the threshold of the side of the wiser. It is then that we will understand that this expression of kindness is the final act in our own cycle of healing.
We experienced what we did, so that we can be closer, connected and compassionate enough to empathize with others when they need us most. Because in the end we are here for each other, we are in this together and we are one in the same.
