The phoenix hope, 
can wing her way through the desert skies, 
and still defying fortune's spite; 
revive from ashes and rise. 
-Miguel de Cervantes 

The only constant, the only truth, the only certainty is change. Sometimes change whispers and slowly moves around you, other times change shouts and runs over you. Regardless, we either stand stiff like an oak and break under a gale storm of change; or we bend like a willow and survive the tempest and turmoil. Amidst the fire raging around or inside of us, the phoenix can arise anew from the ashes.

Every seven years or so,  it seems a gale storm tries to crush me, test me, and push me down. The oak battles with the willow and shakes me, throws me off, and kicks me. Losses and challenges, changes and tests. I stand outside of myself, look in the mirror and ask questions. I have to reach down inside and ask myself who I am, was and will be. And sometimes a hand reaches out to aid me back on track.

I ask questions; sometimes there are no answers. But I know this: accept the pain and let it go. Dig in and regain strength, but also accept the weaknesses. They are both a part of us. To show your weakness is to make yourself vulnerable. But to make yourself vulnerable is to show your strength.

Be the willow and bend. Let the fire burn itself out. And from the ashes rises the Phoenix.

“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Labels: musings