Do you ever wonder, how do I hold all of this? Just me? Life is full of emotions, and feeling them all is exhausting, but it’s also a blessing. Just as tears remind us of our delicate humanity, so does joyful laughter remind us that life is meant to be felt.
These past few weeks have been a whirlwind of emotional highs and lows. Everything from gathering friends to celebrate milestone birthdays, acing exams and barely passing others, to the shock of grief that comes from an unexpected phone call delivering news of loss. Sometimes I long to wish-away the uncomfortable and hard moments, not because I want to live in some alternate reality where life is romanticized, but because holding it all–life and all its wonderful contradictions–is heavy.
It’s true, life is not always fair, but thank goodness it’s not. Heartache, struggle, pain, and failure are necessary for us to learn resilience. Things will not always go the way we planned or wished they would, but unexpected turns often lead to the grandest journeys with the most beautiful destinations.
All poetic sayings aside, instead of wishing away the hard things, I’m choosing to lean in and see what they can teach me. Learning how to experience great joy while also feeling deep sadness is part of being human. This albeit delicate balance is not something that can be “achieved,” but rather a continual practice we can choose to engage in time and time again.
We are complex and multifaceted beings designed to experience, feel, and live with an abundance of emotions. I encourage you to lean in instead of away from feeling deeply all that surrounds you and embrace the wonderful gift of holding it all.