It is all good

Sometimes, we are given the rare gift of distance. A sense that we can see ourselves from the outside, and that, when we do, it is all good.

I don’t mean numbness, which can be the reaction to emotional pain we aren’t capable of staying in.

I mean a layered response to stimulus of any kind that feels something akin to wisdom, and that allows us to stay in our feelings but also see them for what they are: not us, not permanent, not ultimately damaging to our soul and being.

This is the true state of bliss: when I know that I am feeling, what I am feeling, and maybe even why I am feeling it. But I also know that I am love and learning, in constant movement even when I am sitting still. Even when I hurt.

In yogic traditions, this is sometimes talked about as a wave and the sea. The wave is distinct, itself, an independent entity. But it is also the sea, part of everything else. Anything that happens to the wave — even when it crashes onto the shore and disappears — is temporary and good. It is part of the universal us.

I have been sitting with this feeling for days now. I don’t feel particularly blissful. But then I stop, breathe, and remember. And there it is: the knowledge that I am home.

The absolute certainty that it is all good.