ASH PHOENIX
Quite often in our lives, dreams and reality divert significantly as we wish for something which simply does not happen. In today’s article, I will talk about the fourth shadow that we are asked to let go off when walking in the circles of the Vortex de Riambel. After we have released all of our SORROWS, we shall call forth within us LOVE. Love and sorrow, they are so close to each other. What was love one day, can turn into sorrow the next. But how can we define sorrow? Is it grief, regret or something else? Sorrow can be many things. Sorrow can be the grief when we lose a loved one either by death, separation or divorce. When we marry, we only see love, feel love and celebrate love. We embrace love wholeheartedly, at least if we marry somebody we are in love with. A marriage is the embrace of love in its purest form and it should be the manifestation of a happily-ever-after.
In any form of romantic relationship, most of us, however, have to endure their fair share of pain. In the majority of cases, it is not because of an abusive partner or a bad marriage but because we lack something important within: SELF-LOVE. We often say that love is about making compromises but I believe it is also about not giving up our own dreams, aspirations and passions. Many women dedicate their lives to be a good wife and mother but forget their own potential of reaching the stars. Instead, they settle for a supporting role as a wife, mother and sometimes business partner of their husbands. Many of us lose focus of our aspirations when our children are born. I agree that we need to care of them intensely the first couple of years. But as the years pass and they grow older, it is upon us to re-define ourselves as a person beyond the life of a wife and mother. We should always remember that love can be absent from our lives from one day to the next. We can suddenly lose someone through separation, death or divorce, who was the centre of our lives before. Then, only sorrow remains, and often, we are imprisoned in our sorrows.
Sorrow is merciless. It is mental torment that can only be understood by those who have experienced it. When we are stuck in our sorrows, we do not only lose ourselves but also valuable years, months or just weeks. Human nature is ultimately about personal awakenings that follow a rigorous self-analysis. I believe that we can only grow when we try to overcome our shadows. At the end of each year, many of us draw a balance. It is also a good time of the year to release our past, our sorrows, our regrets and move forward fearlessly and full of curiosity of what the future may hold. When we are bathing in our sorrows and are full of regret about the decisions that we made in our lives, we cannot move forward. We only have two choices: we can either march on fearlessly and with determination or we can remain stuck in the past. When we constantly look back and feed our pain, nothing will develop out of it. We can only grow if we are courageous enough for a new adventure. It is then when we discover our true potential.
When we push forward without any doubt, we will surely discover a lot in that process. We learn to love ourselves and to show love again instead of grieving over the past. My dear reader, love is beautiful but it starts with self-love and not with loving another person. First we need to embrace self-love otherwise we lose ourselves in any form of romantic love. We need to acknowledge who we are and what we want, and we need to follow our dreams and live our passions. Only if we embark on the journey of self-love and self-respect, we will find love in others and with others.
In my fiction novel, The Chronicles of the Tiny Island, I describe the journey of the Tigress. After arriving on the Tiny Island, she falls in love with Strong Lion, and he with her green eyes. Only after their separation, the Tigress learns to hunt on her own on the island, thereby discovering her true calling. My dear reader, the path of each of us is very different. We set different priorities and we want different things in our lives. Some of us are happy in a tight family circle, others need to discover the world and work and live abroad. Many of us enjoy the company of their friends and like to try out different hobbies and follow various passions. Again others embrace spirituality and make this the centre of their lives. Whoever we are, whatever we want and however we live, in the end we all strive for one particular thing: LOVE. The meaning of this word is broad and entails not only romantic love and love for our families. It also describes the love that we have for God, the love we feel on our spiritual path, the love for our friends, work, hobbies, and even our adventures. My dear reader, wherever you currently stand in your life, whether you found your calling or not, I would like to ask you for one thing: do whatever you do with love in your heart.
