Hello Fellow Traveller,
I’ve noticed recently that I keep assuming my current feeling will last forever.
I was in the depths of sadness last week. The brutality in the world was weighing on my heart, and it was hard to see how any light could emerge from the darkness.
We are killing each other.
We are destroying nature.
It is hard not to assume the worst in others, and to not be overwhelmed by pessimism and grief.
And yet, this week I’ve been feeling light, peaceful and at ease.
My thoughts are slower, my mind is clearer, I am breathing more easily.
Look how the sunlight falls on the leaves of a tree.
What a small miracle it is to simply sit and drink tea.
Isn’t it astonishing that we can love each other in spite of the history of suffering we share?
I am at peace, and I assume I will remain this way, forever.
And yet, next week may bring something different.
And if not next week, then perhaps next month, or next year.
I don’t know whether or not we have multiple lives, but certainly a feeling like sadness or joy seems to arise, exist for a time, and then transform into something else.
Whether in this moment, or perhaps another.
Maybe all I can do then is accept my current feeling with awareness and compassion, and try to extend the same awareness and compassion to others.
Maybe a feeling is a bit like a visitor, anyway – something we can welcome with humility and learn from with curiosity, while appreciating it is just passing through.
Until next time,
Jason
Soulful Thoughts 
It does feel like we live in parallel lives or rather that parallel lives are being lived through us with a third party pulling the levers casting us from one reality to another.
The challenge I find is to experience sadness or grief without descending into despair.
Your mindful reflections enable a degree of detachment, allowing space, time and agency to determine which reality prevails.
That cup of tea (preferably Earl Grey) or encounter with a stranger can then become something extraordinary.
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