Alchemy

“Suddenly you’re ripped into being alive.
And life is pain,
And life is suffering,
And life is horror,
But my god you’re alive
And it’s spectacular.”
Joseph Campbell

Painter, Alice Neel, says “All experience is great, providing you live through it. If it kills you, you’ve gone too far.” You should keep on painting no matter how difficult it is, because this is all part of experience, and the more experience you have, the better it is…unless it kills you, and then you know you have gone too far.
Only the bravest warriors dare take the journey. The higher the hill, the further the fall, and fall we will. Fall we must. What goes up must come down, and again. Thank you, Newton. Or as with the Law of Relativity, everything happens FOR you, not TO you.
What I’ve learned is that in order to rise above, I must commune with every vice, every sorrow, every pain, every horror, in order to realize how much stronger I am than anything that works so diligently to have me believe otherwise than the holy purpose I came here for. It’s their JOB to do that. And they perform it brilliantly. They are the fire that forges the iron.
Well, bravo, you tricksters. Well done. Watch me rise.
Every pain strengthens me. Every suffering makes me more compassionate. Every horror has me realize that the choice to love harder always trumps indifference.
Divine alchemy is at play and I know who I am. And it’s spectacular.