Life will break you

And you can go on

“Apple thoughts” designed by me

I read the following and was struck by its powerful honesty. I agree.

“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.” Louise Erdrich, from her novel The Painted Drum, 2005.

That reminds me of the following saying, which I have quoted in other posts.

“You must understand the whole of life, not just one part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, why you must sing, dance and write poems, and suffer, and understand, for all that is life.” Jiddu Krishnamurti, from his seventh talk in Madras, recorded in Think on These Things, 1964.

It is the totality of life – its ups and downs, its light and darkness – that gives it complexity, depth and beauty.

Life has completely broken me, many times. I’ve earned the Phoenix badge, many times. I am still going. Ready for life’s next revelation.

The King of Wands in Tarot has an often-overlooked symbolic element. Look at the little salamanders on the back of his throne and on the pedestal beside him. People thought that the little lizard could survive fire. It became a symbol of endurance and strength. The mighty lion on the throne is a well-known symbol of strength. But the little salamander also has quiet determination. I like the message of this card.