Unfold Your Wings and Watch Life Take Off

Part 2 - Your Potential

Your Potential Absorbs Unusual Happenings

As we wander the way, we are hoping to improve the quality of our lives. We quite naturally seek out relationships, work and friends who we think will make our lives happier and more fulfilling. However, although we try to avoid it, eventually we are bound to encounter unusual happenings.

Unusual happenings are events that happen to us along the way, that are not of our conscious choosing and involve loss, grief and heartache. Examples include diseases, accidents, divorce, becoming bankrupt, being a victim of crime, experiencing the death of a loved one, etc.

How can we make such difficult experiences part of a fortunate life?

When we meet with unusual happenings we are inclined to experience feelings of bitterness, cynicism, self-pity, anger, resentment and a host of other negative emotions. These are all part of a natural grief reaction.

	UNFOLDING YOUR WINGS
Healing takes place when you allow these feelings to surface and be expressed. You can go into the woods and scream, do artistic drawings, write, talk to a friend or simply sit alone and cry. If you express these feelings fully they will eventually leave. (See Your Calling Is Elevated Through The Release Of Pain)

This is the vale of tears. It is the way we cope with loss. However it is important to remember that the vale of tears is not all pain. We open our hearts through this grieving process and we become aware of a deeper reality.

When a loved one dies, or we have a disabling accident, our favourable outer circumstances are shattered and we are grief stricken. For a while we may think happiness is no longer possible. We grieve because we believe our happiness is dependent on our lives having these favourable circumstances. However by fully experiencing this grief, happiness eventually returns. We then discover that our newfound happiness is more durable, because it is closer to real happiness – a happiness that is independent of our circumstances. This is one of the purposes of following our calling – to come upon happiness that is independent of our circumstances. This happiness endures, no matter what life throws at us.

	UNFOLDING YOUR WINGS
You open your heart through this grief process and give birth to deeper compassion and empathy. This means you are more able to empathise with others who suffer. You will find you are more inclined to reach out and help. You are becoming more loving.

Aspects of our lives that were important may not now hold the same prominence in our mind and in our values. We are more in touch with the durable, timeless and dependable. We are more in touch with reality. We are also more sensitive to our calling.

In my own life I have been touched by two unusual happenings, schizophrenia and depression. As a result of these two diseases I lost my career, my income, my friends and my happiness. However, because I eventually embraced these illnesses and worked through the grief associated with them, I became a much stronger person. I now have a new set of values, a new understanding, a new compassion and a new more durable happiness given by the beauty of the radiant swan within.

Although I did not consciously choose them, these two unusual happenings were the most significant events to happen to me as I explored my potential. Looking back on that difficult period of my life, I can honestly say that it was a blessing in disguise. (See Your Healing From Adversity.)

If we embrace the feelings of loss and work through the associated grief, unusual happenings that we encounter along the way lead us to a happiness that is independent of our circumstances.

Envoi

I am exploring my potential,
And I have had an unfortunate accident.

I am suffering loss
I am grief stricken.
I am in mourning

The grief can be held in no longer.

I express my pain.
I exorcise my loss.
I embrace my grief.

Through my grief I am healed
And find a new kind of happiness.
In my newfound happiness
I am aware of the timeless, indestructible reality,
An inner diamond,
Unaffected by the rigors of loss and decay.