Life, in its overall form, is not cruel, and testing us is done more to reveal something in us that we did not know was there.
We summon up strengths we did not know we had and set boundaries we didn’t think we needed. A voice comes to us from our past that we had buried, or maybe a truth we have been dodging shows up.
We are not being punished; a challenge has been laid at our feet, stretching us beyond the safe edges of comfort and leading us to the wild terrain of transformation.
It feels like hell at times; it delivers both physical and emotional pain. Often, we feel like we are unraveling, falling apart in slow motion, while the world keeps spinning around us like nothing is wrong.
I woke this morning understanding what is true.
Every test brings with it the seed of clarity.
It may show up as a thought or in your reflection in a mirror, the lick from your dog that says, “This is who I am now. And this is what I will no longer carry.”
We need to evolve. Hence, we get tested. It is sometimes vital to shed the version of ourselves that was only surviving and step into the one where we thrive.
Pain is a wake-up call, losses realign us, and difficult seasons are humbling–and empowering.
We don’t want to be tested.
But on the other side of that test,
is a kind of wholeness we didn’t know we could hold.
carolelynnesanek
