Vital Life and Love Lessons This Harsh Winter Is Teaching Us
“When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”
THE DAWNING LIGHT # 61 Friday March 31, 2023
Photo Credit: Chinmayan
“When the going gets tough, the tough get going”
The last massive rain storm has passed, and it’s predicted that we will have at least a few days now of cloudy sky’s without rain, but that the nights will still be freezing.
Whatever it is, we will take it in stride and keep on keeping on.
This morning Ani and I were talking heart to heart about the things we are learning as we go through the training experiences that each day delivers to us.
It has been a long tough winter which has tested us to the very limits of our abilities to deal with each challenge as it came.
It has tested us physically, with almost every night with temperatures dropping below freezing and seeming endless days of raging storms and wind. And having to work out in the wind, wet and cold to make fire wood and protect structures from destruction.
It has tested us mentally and emotionally as grey skies and sunless days and heavy rainfall kept us indoors in this tiny house.
It tested our relationship and our ability to not give in to the darkness outside and the creeping depression inside.
It tested both of us as we got “cabin fever”from having to be in this tiny house for days and nights on end , which made us irritable and short tempered.
It tested us financially, with outrageously high electricity bills, soaring prices for propane to heat out tiny house which cost hundreds of dollars per month, and having to watch every penny to insure we had the food and other necessities of life we need.
It tested us spiritually, as we redoubled our prayer and meditation practices as we felt the counter currents of challenging circumstances very nearly overwhelm our ability to maintain our faith in the divine and an optimistic attitude.
This winter was and still is like running naked down a gauntlet of hostile forces that keep striking us as we pass.
The challenges have been unremitting, unexpectedly intense and even life threatening. Ani is vulnerable to the deep cold and potential hypothermia, so we have to be vigilant and careful.
When we are sharing as we were this morning, our communication itself helps us to articulate things between us in a way that crystallizes our deeper understanding.
We both know that the divine is training each of us through our life experiences and that everything we go through has meaning and a deeper purpose.
As spiritual warriors, we understand this principle and so greet our experiences as opportunities to learn valuable lessons from everything that happens in our lives.
As we talked this morning, we realized how far we have come since the winter began seemingly so long ago.
Even though we both have had many days where all we could do was lie in bed or sit in our chairs to “chill, rest and recuperate”, we have grown stronger.
We had to learn to be content with what we could do, rather than struggle against what we couldn’t.
We are closer than ever, with vastly improved communication, and greater respect and appreciation for each other.
We are now steadily improving on every level of our beings in ways that have been brought about through having no choice but to face the oncoming challenges and not just endure, but come out on victorious by every measure from this time of trials, tribulations and adversity.
Now, our communication is clearer, closer, and more insightful than ever because we had to develop better communication to help and be there for each other. We now understand each other’s essential needs and are lovingly and consciously making the changes to insure those needs are met. Real love is unconditionally making it your priority to love the beloved as they need to be loved.
As we continue communicating, sharing our days and its lessons together, we are grateful for all that life is teaching us…and that our loving connection is becoming so deep and wide as we are making this life’s magnificent spiritual journey together.
Photo Credit: Chinmayan
GREAT AND NOBLE TASKS I long to accomplish Great and noble tasks, But it is my chief duty To accomplish small tasks As if they were Great and noble. —Helen Keller SHOWING UP FOR CHANGE Not everything that is faced Can be changed, But nothing can b e changed Until it is faced. —James Baldwin
Photo Credit: Chinmayan
Once the seed of faith takes root,
It cannot be blown away
Even by the strongest wind.
—Rumi
Image Credit: Still Mountain Meditation Center
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