If you’re going through hell …

“What happens in a cocoon is not that a caterpillar grows wings and turns into a butterfly. Rather, the caterpillar turns to mush. It disintegrates, and out of this mush, a new creature grows. Why does no one talk about the mush? Or about how, for any changes at all to happen, we must for some time, be nothing—be mush.” (Sheila Heti, Motherhood)

What if we looked at this time as the "death and rebirth" of that which has to go? Cleaning out the closet – the literal or figurative one! 

"Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final." — Rainer Maria Rilke

"If You're Going Through Hell, Keep Going." — Winston Churchill

"This too shall pass" — A Persian Adage

No doubt, we are all experiencing difficulty. Talking in a calm voice, and pretending that some of us don't often feel awful is just denial (or the "spiritual bypass") – the teaching then, is to not cling ... yes, today is difficult, tomorrow or the next moment, may or may not be different.

One of the purposes in assisting others, as a Buddhist lay teacher and Life Coach, is to both pass on the idea that we "sit with what is," and to realize that nothing is permanent.

Overwhelm is likely a given – how can we "parent" ourselves, and one another, in remembering that we are each made up of multitudes. 

Just like a parent can calm an upset child (the freaking out part of each of us) – how can we each "parent" ourselves (and our loved ones) from that universal place of knowing that, we will get through this, not necessarily unscathed, but “this too shall pass.”

What might you ‘watch’ today, passing through, in your life?