Nevertheless . . .

Life can sometimes be filled with an overwhelming, blinding, blizzard of challenges, pain and heartbreak. Into each life some rain must fall and all that . . .

Everyone you know and love will die. You yourself will become frail, ill and slip behind the silver veil, the echoes of youth falling silent. Memories sharp now will slowly lose focus and ebb away like leaves on a river. Even the sharpest of pains will numb over time. You don’t think they will but they do . . .

Doesn’t seem like a fair deal does it?

The ephemeral nature of being and things is the very beauty of them. They and you (in the physical from at least) won’t last any meaningful sense of time (on the grand scheme of things). So, Carpe that Diem.

I’ve been searching for the right word for years to describe what has always been on the tip of my tongue. Today, It hit me like a bolt of lightening . . .

Nevertheless.

All the great advice . . . quotes . . . talks . . . amazing books . . . plays . . . movies . . . the best music are based on this fundamental truth.

Yes this situation (whatever it is) is bad. This situation is tough. Almost unbearable. Nevertheless, carry on. In spite of this. Both can be true. Inexplicably, one can be true because of the other. That’s true beauty. The Buddhists say life is suffering. The stoics say keep moving despite the pain. Samwise Gangee’s speech in Lord of the Rings speaks to this. There’s something good in this world and it’s with fighting for.

He asks how can we go on after so much bad has happened in the world? We can. And we will. Our 50 billion ancestors have done it before our time and not one of them had an easy run to the finish for it. Many, if not, nearly all of them had it more impossibly harder than we could imagine. This doesn’t diminish or trivialize our own sufferings but a wee bit of perspective wouldn’t go amiss.

Knowing life can be incredible difficult, challenging and painful. Knowing that it is all truly worth it, even if it doesn’t look like it in the moment, is the key.