Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Day 17: Transient Feelings

Today's blog prompt is courtesy of Blogher. 

Do you believe you need to know sadness in order to appreciate happiness?

I don't think that we need to know sadness to appreciate happiness.  When I ponder this I find myself instead thinking that what is needed, what I need, is to become comfortable with both sadness and happiness and to understand that both are temporary states of being. Their transient nature can lead us to an appreciation of both of them.

This evening I am feeling the let down, the crash, that comes with the semester ending.  Right now an evening of nothing to do seems frightening and is producing some anxiety for me.  I go through this at the end of every semester and despite the fact that I know it will happen, it still seems to take be by surprise.

When I give it some thought I realize that in years past keeping as busy as possible was my way of avoiding feeling.  When I would stop moving, stop doing, all of those thoughts and feelings would come rushing in.  They would overwhelm me and more often than not I'd soon find myself in full panic mode.  Perhaps this feeling tonight comes from my body automatically bracing for an emotional impact.

As with happiness or sadness I know this anxious feeling is a temporary one and even now, as I write, the feeling is beginning to pass. These days stillness is something I have come to greatly appreciate and welcome in my life.  Apparently some parts of my being are taking a bit longer to become comfortable with that idea.

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