This, this piece, is less about loss and more about revival. Reread that last word again just to be sure it sticks in your mind. It’s gonna come up later on.

As a society we tend to see in only black and white; have and have not. Living and dying.

I can’t help but wonder if maybe, this has caused us to see loss as a negative thing instead of something good. With loss, comes growth. Growth is necessary, it’s natural, everything in life grows.

Yet, when we experience our own growth taking shape our instinct is to fight against it. Why? Why do we, human beings, continue to helplessly fight against nature; continue to fight ourselves?

If this seems in any way to be in a preachy tone, I apologize as that’s not at all my intent. It never is. I simply write and live out of curiosity. A curiousness that begs me to continually ask, “Why?” Although, with in the last year of my life especially (eh, lets say two just to be sure) I’ve grown more accustomed to asking, “Why not?”

For now, the simple question of: Why not let ourselves grow? Why not, allow ourselves to let go of things that we know we no longer need?

Perhaps, it’s because the more we let go the more we come to understand that even our very time in life is temporary? That sooner or later we’ll have to let our life essence go; we’ll have to relinquish all this time we’ve been allowed to borrow.

 

So, why not take that time and learn to practice letting go so that we can grow? (Almost sounds like something you’d hear in a cult setting. Don’t worry that’s not where this is headed.)

I’m not saying let go of everything at once, or to give up on your life. No, because it is YOURS. You have a right to own it, have it and live it. But, as I’m sure most of us found out in childhood, we can’t hold on to everything. Eventually there comes a time when certain things need to be set free. From ideas, to childhood friends, to childhood homes all starting with our baby teeth.

Eventually, we all have to let go of something in order for something new to enter our lives.

It’s natural. It’s what we’ve come to widely label as “Death”. “The death of an era,” “The death of an idea,” “The death of…” You get the picture.

Yet we see death as this negative thing, any time something changes we assume the worst and fight to keep something we may not even fully understand alive. All the while only succeeding in keeping ourselves from experiencing, our full potential.

“From one thing, ten thousand things grow.” -Japanese proverb.

For every moment of uncertainty, for every moment of confusion, there are ten thousand moments of happiness and truth. Will they all happen to one person at one time? No. But they will happen. That’s what we need to practice allowing ourselves to understand.

 

Instead of allowing ourselves to be consumed by the constant uncertainty of loss, we need to practice and help others become aware of the expansive opportunities that await our curiosity.

Give ourselves a chance, for true revival.

We already know what we have to lose. But imagine, all that we have to gain.

What things could we accomplish?

What would you do with a lifetime filled with revival?

 

I think the better question is, what makes you think you’re not living within infinite moments of revival? 

In other words, what will you do knowing your life is already a lifetime of unlimited revival?

 

-Gustavo Lomas