Letting go...

Stumbled upon the passage below the other day, these words providing a semblance of comfort and a dose of soothing balm for the pain that I am still struggling to deal with. As much as I try to keep myself busy (I know this is not the solution), in the dead of the night (like now), just when I am going to bed, the pain hits upon the walls of the heart like relentless tidal waves, leaving me helpless in their wake. The tears don't come, I feel like a complete void. I don't know how else to cope, except hope and pray that it will get better with time. That the emptiness I feel inside in the shape of you, will dissolve with time and be filled up.

'Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that hold your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Some of you say, “Joy is greater than sorrow,” and others say, “Nay, sorrow is the greater.” But I say unto you, they are inseparable. Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.
Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.
When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.'

—Khalil Gibran (Lebanese-American artist, poet and writer): 'On Joy and Sorrow' in 'The Prophet'


Gute Nacht, schlaf gut...