As I transition back into American culture after spending three years in Rwanda, Africa, I have no choice but to see that we must make peace with the contrast that is life.
During my time in Rwanda, my human experience was intense on every human level. I saw the best and worst of humanity. I looked into the eyes of men who had killed their neighbors and witnessed the strife that they live with every day…the confusion of how they could do such horrible things…the horror of the mysterious force that is fear. I had the honor of being surrounded by souls who exemplify the resilience of humanity; the beauty that comes from people being pushed to unimaginable depth and darkness and coming out on the other side. And in more instances than not, not using that depth as an excuse for victimization, but instead using it as an opportunity to bring more love, more peace, more joy into the world. For the sole reason that they don’t want a world like they one they have witnessed.
So, what is the purpose of contrast? The purpose of suffering? Of discomfort?
To propel us into the light.
That is the beauty of the darkness. That it leads us directly into the light. We come onto this earth to master the contrast. To utilize the great gift that is free will, that is choice. To feel on every level the suffering. To breathe it in. To sit with it as if it is our friend….because it is. Because the suffering, the pain, the itching to escape our bodies, our situations, our unideal circumstances, is what gives us the depth to then go into the world with determination to create something better.
Shadow is inescapable. Night is inescapable. Balance is inescapable.
Therefore, contrast is the gift.
Light is inescapable. Day is inescapable. The high after the low is inescapable.
But our choice must be to allow fully the growing pains that come with extending further into our higher selves. To acknowledge the meaning of our existence. To appreciate that we are here for a unique purpose and that our being our best possible selves serves the higher good. To know that it is not coincidence that we are here. But that we are meaning. We are purpose. We are hope. In our being, we are the beauty that is contrast.
