Tonight

Tonight I am wallowing in a psychological rut. Letting go is so much easier when you’re moving forward, it’s this reality of my physicality that forces me to be still until the pain decreases.

If the pain decreases. God it takes so long and the surgery has caused new issues that at least are not the same issues but I’m forced once again to sit still. So I read Buddhist philosophy and meditate and tell myself I’m teaching myself to sit more comfortably with the unavoidable reality of suffering and sometimes I feel so proud of my resilience, of how I can weather the most violent and painful internal storms. Sometimes I feel so wise, so connected, so grateful, so much love and so I work to keep my focus on the beauty that is a purring cat on my lap, a storm of autumn leaves on the road, my mother humming in the kitchen, a lover telling me I am beautiful.

And I am getting better at sitting in this stillness, there are moments when I feel the reality of my body and accept it with grace and calm. There are more of those moments now as I have begun to let go of needing to meet any standards but for the ones that are realistic and kind. Everything is easier now that I am kind to myself.

Easier but not easy. Sometimes I look at my life and see how much of it has been spent from a place of enforced stillness, watching as everything moves and grows and shifts around me and I am forced to wait while my body ages and my face starts to sag. I no longer want to dwell in the bitter taste of envy when I behold the able-bodied who know not the privilege of doing without thought, I no longer want to feel as if I might die when I watch other people paint or play music or do whatever they love with unnoticed freedom. But when months go by and I am unable to pick up a pencil or brush without unworkable pain… well, to pretend that isn’t devastating would be a lie. It’s grief, it still is, maybe it always will be.

There is that temptation to fall into that grief and succumb to an overwhelming hopelessness like I once would have. I can see why I wanted to go there in the past, I can see the horrifying way in which giving up would have been a relief. This existing in my crippled and chronically painful body is hard work, it requires constant vigilance, such intense internal work, such a deep and brave and thorough exploration of myself, my worth. It requires the ability to stare into the cold face of reality and unrealisable dreams, it requires the ability to resolve to keep trying and loving and hoping no matter what. It requires a dogged determination to perceive the beauty and tenderness in whatever I might face, no matter how utterly cold and cruel it all seems.

It requires a deep humbleness, an uncompromising kindness and a gentler hold on my own ego. It requires the careful cultivation of people who can hold space with me through light and dark, sickness and health. Compassion has become non-negotiable.

Tonight I am wallowing in a psychological rut. Tonight I may cry for an hour and feel entirely bereft and alone. Tonight I might not be ok. Tomorrow I may step outside and notice something overwhelmingly beautiful such as the drama of sunlit storm clouds. Tomorrow I may read a book that takes me out of myself. Tomorrow I might have a drink with friends who make me feel loved and content. It’s light and dark just every day, it’s pain and joy just every day.  The magical highs, the tedious lows, much of it is unavoidable and inevitable so I might as well learn what I can from it all. I hope, no matter what, that I can learn to navigate the entire spectrum of experience with equilibrium, curiosity and dignity.