Despair

If He bars against you all passages, He will show you a secret way, which no one knows.

- Rumi 

"When I despair," wrote Mahatma Gandhi, "I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it  --always."             

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," we mumble. "Easy for you to say, Barefoot Boy, when you're on the other side of despair. But, when you're up to your neck in the entrails of despair, it's not so easy to think hopeful thoughts. Any hopeful thoughts.                  

Despair doesn't just say things look bad; despair is pretty sure things'll stay that way. Despair is not just a case of sad; despair is sad on steroids. If despair sees a light at the end of a tunnel, despair is pretty sure it's an oncoming train.                 

Sorrow can bring you down. Despair can debilitate you. It can have you feeling not only hopeless, but powerless and incompetent to do anything to drag your sweet and sad butt into the hope department.                 

The bad news is that no one is immune from despair. The good news is that no one is immune from despair. We have all been there or and/or will be there soon enough again. Which makes a great case for compassion. And for - even reluctantly  - remembering that there have indeed been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible; but in the end, they always fall. Always. Always.  

Despair is not - nor ever has been - the end of the road.  Compassion and love can - and do - open up whole new highways.  Always. All ways.