I was discussing the last post I sent with someone, who commented that 'guarding against the highs' is a foreign concept. So I thought I'll explain myself a bit more today, just in case anyone else feels the same.
What does faith mean to you?
For a lot of us, even trusting in Spirit is a huge ask. Seriously, enormous. We're used to taking care of ourselves; used to having to figure it all out alone. Asking us to do something as abstract as believe in the universe is asking us to let our guard down and reveal our soft spot. To open up to the chance that we could get disappointed yet again.
True faith, the kind where you really surrender and stop trying to control everything, is a life's work for some of us.
But maybe we start to get there. Baby steps. We have flashes of optimism; moments where we feel protected by something greater than ourselves. We start to see the signs and believe in synchronicities. We stop calling it 'luck' and start calling it 'blessings'. We watch our path be straightened at our feet, and we know we can't take the credit for how things are working out in our favour. We know that the things that are happening in our lives are far beyond our human abilities ... but they're happening anyway. And that has to mean something, right?
That, my dear, is faith. It's a powerful, intoxicating thing. It makes us feel like we can move mountains.
But what happens when the path stops being straight, when things aren't working out, when the luck turns sour?
Because maybe that was never true faith. Maybe it was egoic self-validation.
True faith is what you hold onto when things are going to shit, be it in real life or just in your head. Or maybe I should say it's what holds you. Maybe it's a bit both.
So guard against the highs. Don't get too carried away when life is going perfectly. And guard against the lows. Don't be swept away by despair when things are fucked.
Find a middle ground between the two, because none of them are where you want to set up your permanent home. Pure joy and pure suffering can both tempt you into losing your perspective, believing that this is how things are always going to be. But of course, that's not true. Whether we're up or down, change will come for us eventually.
So maybe faith doesn’t mean trusting that things will always work out. Maybe it means trusting that you can remain grounded and true to yourself, regardless of what your external life looks like.
I hope these words were nourishment for your soul. Until the next time, wishing you peace and contentment, in the highs and the lows.