I ended a mediation session this past week and one of the soon-to-be-former spouses said, “I just don’t want to live. There’s nothing to live for. You said it would get better but it hasn’t.”
I hurt for this person. And I wanted to quote Sonny from the movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel : “Everything will be all right in the end… if it’s not all right then it’s not yet the end.” I didn’t. In the midst of tears and anguish such quotes can feel trite. But I wanted to. I wanted to encourage a shift, if only some of the time, from a focus on the horribleness of it all to the gifts that still flow in every day. I wanted to say, “It’s not yet the end.” I wanted to show her this photo you see of the plaque on the mantle above my fireplace.
Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize winning play, Our Town is about the end. You’ve likely seen this perennial favorite at least once where the dead of Grover’s Corners speak from the grave. I was reminded of its power in Connie Schultz’s impactful recent column which I’m going to make myself read regularly. You can read it here: http://heraldpalladium.mi.newsmemory.com/publink.php?shareid=090cf3b98
I hope we are all able remember the gifts of the small moments, as Schultz suggests, especially in the middle of life’s large challenges.
Wishing you wisdom,
