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Friday, December 18, 2009

Inspire: DH Lawrence

"Live and let live, and each pansy will tip you its separate wink. The fairest thing in nature, a flower, still has its roots in the earth and manure; and in the perfume there hovers still the faint strange scent of earth, the under-earth in all its heavy humidity and darkness. Certainly it is so in pansy-scent, and in violet-scent; mingled with the blue of the morning the black of the corrosive humus. Else the scent would be just sickly sweet."

Excerpt from the Introduction to Pansies, D.H. Lawrence.

"The fairest thing in nature" is rooted in the dark earth, the compost, the stuff no one likes to think about.But without it, where would we be? I hold the belief that to truly live, to truly see the beauty in life, one must survive the dark times. Maybe to some my dark times aren't that bad, but they are dark times to me and that's what matters. I would not be the person I am today if I did not have to strive to overcome the darkness. However, it is not that I overcame them that is important, it is important that they happened. Dark times teach us about life. They teach us about taking things for granted, about what is important, and about ourselves.

 I don't think anyone can truly know what kind of person they are if they aren't challenged at some point. That's what the "heavy humidity and darkness" do for us.  They reveal what is kept inside.  Are we really strong people?  Or do we faint at the first sign of opposition.  A lot of the time we don't know what we are learning until after the event.  When we look back we go, "You know, I feel more confident in myself for getting over that hurdle.  It wasn't such a big deal, and now I know how to deal with it."  Or, "That was a really bad part of my life.  But I have learned how to stay out of those situations or how to deal with my grief so that I can continue living." Sometimes it is necessary to step back and evaluate where we are.  With our feet deep inside the darkness, we can find ourselves.

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