A friend of mine’s son just graduated from boot camp. In her pictures, my friend and her son look so full of relief. I think that relief is one of the most underrated emotions in the world. Relief feels almost as good as love and peace and happiness. Relief marks the end of suffering. Relief is when you finally get an answer to a question. Relief is finishing and crossing off all of the stuff that you have written on your to-do list. Relief is looking in the rear window of an event you had been anticipating and working towards for a long, long time, and then having completed it successfully. TUMS made “relief” their major selling point and marketing campaign. We love the feeling of relief.
In the beginning of the summer, I was feeling a lot of relief about the coronavirus. It seemed like it was really going to be behind us. All of my family and friends got vaccinated. We were even able to go on a nice family vacation, and out of the country, to boot. But now this damn Delta variant is ripping through my state. I personally know two vaccinated people who have tested positive for Covid. I believe that they are going to be okay, but it is so frustrating and disappointing and upsetting to be dealing with this virus, all over again, just when we were feeling so much relief.
I just read The Gift by Edith Eger, who survived the Auschwitz camp during the Holocaust. Edith said that a main reason why she survived the camp (she was found by the Allied troops, starving, on top of a pile of dead bodies) was that she was able to hold on to hope. She said that the definition of hope is knowing that suffering is temporary, and staying curious about what comes next. It is best to focus on how much relief we will feel when this coronavirus really dwindles down to not even being newsworthy. The hope and the anticipation of the wonderful feeling of relief (because all suffering is temporary) is what will sustain us through whatever else this pandemic brings our way.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
I wish that more people would realize that suffering is temporary – unless we choose to make it permanent. I have a friend who sees suffering as the purpose of her life. When relief heads her way, she seeks out new ways to suffer. I’ve known her since 6th grade, and I used to think that she just couldn’t catch a break. It’s only been recently, since I began working hard on my personal issues, that I’ve realized that she CHOOSES to suffer and brings it into her life. I’m intrigued by this realization; I can’t understand why any rational person would make that choice. I remember hearing a line from a movie once, “If I didn’t feel suffering and pain, I’m afraid that I wouldn’t feel anything at all.” I wonder if that’s how she feels.
That’s so sad, Kelly! I hope that she gets to the level of self-awareness that she can see that for herself.