Ah, how wonderful a teacher emotional pain can be, if we allow it! How marvelous the fear of what will happen, the grappling with moments of life when that dark heavy cloud refuses to leave you alone, how beautiful, how wonderful, if we allow it. Ram Dass called these types of experiences ‘grist for the mill,’ helping us to refine, refine, refine. Darkness helps the light to crystallize. Darkness helps to wake us up, to let us see how much light we were ungratefully basking in prior to its arrival, if we let it. Darkness is not inherently bad, for without it our dualistic minds cannot know light. The deeper the darkness, the stronger the light. So long as we are humans, we must work with our minds, so better than to wish for a life free of darkness (fear, anger, agitation, worry, doubt, etc.), enlightened are you who seek truth, to embrace all, to push away nothing, to allow all things to unfold naturally. Beyond the mind, there is no dark and light, beyond the mind, we understand they are birthed from the same source. All is one, but when we engage in this life, caught up in its game, duality pervades all. Learn to flow like water, to dance with the ebbs and flows. Even if life is not how you think it ought to be, trust that it is how it ought to be, as it is, in this moment.