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Today's
Meditation:
Sometimes
I just feel sad. There's often not any real cause
for it that I can be sure of, just an overwhelming feeling
of sadness. Bad things are happening in the world
every day-- people are hurting and killing other people and
animals and trees, and we're destroying the planet we're
living on, and it can be overwhelming sometimes to be
fully aware of this truth. When the sadness comes, I
don't try to fight it. Rather, I try to accept it
and realize that life is about ups and downs and cycles,
that sadness will come and go, and when it's here I want
to accept it.
But
it's a visitor to whom I don't want to give an extended
invitation. I don't want to wallow in the sadness
and let it take me over because it is one of those friends
who tries to be controlling and dominating. Sadness
doesn't want me to feel other emotions because it's very
insecure, and when I feel sad for too long, it has its
hooks in me and doesn't want to let me go. So I cry,
I spend time alone, I try to respect the truths of the
sadness, but then I shift my focus to the positive things
that are also all around me, and I come back to the world
with a greater appreciation for all those things that
don't contribute to the sadness.
It
would be very easy to be sad all the time. If I were
to think of all my missed opportunities as disasters,
sadness would rule the day. If I were to dwell on
bad things that other people have done to me, I certainly
wouldn't be happy. If I were to constantly think
about dreams that haven't come true, my life would be dark
and dreary. But I don't want to do that, so I don't.
I'm
not quite sure where sadness ends and depression begins; I
don't know how I would define the separation between grief
and sadness. I am sure, though, that much of sadness
is often choice-- when someone dies, do we allow sadness to
take over because the person is gone, or do we celebrate
the time that we were able to spend with that
person? Or both? We can allow our sadness to
make us more whole, healthier, and more
compassionate. If we do so, then sadness can serve a
very important purpose in our lives.
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