“Get thy bearings”

So here's the thing - life is a never ending story and the only way to live it is to keep flipping those pages. It's been awhile since we last spoke, much has happened in my life and I'm sure much has happened in yours.

It's funny how one morning you're rubbing the sleep from your eyes as the sun says hello, and then you blink, and six or more months have just sondered on by. Physics says there's an equation for how time passes but I beg to differ.

Yes, that is me, in my beloved city of origin celebrating a bayou.

So, as it goes, bayous deserve to be celebrated and time passes whichever way but how you'd hope, yet what matters most is that despite circumstances, I am here writing and you are here reading; we're connecting through a means of communication that outlasts us by more than a few centuries. And I'm stoked to be back with you.

Now I bet you're just as curious as I am on what the topic of this post is, and I'll tell ya, we about to find out!

It feels as though many I've encountered in the past months are going through what I can only liken to tumultuous joy - these people are experiencing some of what, objectively, could be described as devastating life events, and yet they seemingly are carrying about with a renewed lightness to their step and a sense of settled inner-wellbeing. How?

See, a concept that has become apparent to me is that of a binary, or rather, an infinite set defined by two "end" variables that act like bookends. I think in numbers most often so let's begin there, think of 0 and 1. How many numbers exist between them? Can you count each of those numbers?

No? Me either.

What about day and night? Can you perfectly fathom the moments of the Earth spinning on its axis to gift us both a time of light and a time of less light (darkness, I suppose)? Or how about consciousness? Can you describe what happens with your sense of being as you drift to sleep each night and wake each morning?

Yet each of these concepts has a stated, significant difference between one end and the other. These two opposing concepts have purpose in defining what can exist for our understanding of otherwise seemingly infinite constructs; they provide order.

I used the term tumultuous joy. What I'm attempting to encompass in that term is the held perspective of joy while oscillating within the spectrum of joy and suffering. I believe, like those binaries described above, joy and suffering are similar bookends to a vast expanse of what it means to be alive. They bleed out other emotions and feelings, yet it comes back to these two concepts of joy and suffering.

What connects all of these concepts, 0 and 1, day and night, conscious and unconscious, joy and suffering, etc., is that they all seemingly can't exist without the other; you must experience one to conceive of the other.

What I've witnessed in myself and others is this idea that despite suffering in circumstances, moments of despair or complete desolation, there exists something better. And whatever this better thing is, whether it be the end result, the inner growth, or simply being grateful it wasn't worse, it's a seed that begins to take root. Well anyone who's grown (or attempted) to grow plants knows that 1) not all roots take to a new medium 2) roots can be killed. Just because the seed has taken root does not mean it will always prosper. It is up to us as our own stewards to ensure this seed grows.

This is why the perspective of joy must be held. It's a choice, one of the few we truly have, to view within and without us a certain way. This does not mean you will "feel" joy in all circumstances - haha hell no, nobody in their right mind would promise that - it means you hold a deep understanding it'll be okay and you will feel joy once again.

As Donovan says, "Get your bearings, know the time. Don't you worry, weather's fine."

<3 Jenn