Mystery School

It’s too early to despair; it’s always too early to despair. The world itself is a mystery school and teaches us what it needs. It gives us impossible tasks and impossible journeys, and all we can say is that we love the world without knowing outcomes, because it is the only world we have, and because we never do know outcomes. You cannot explain your life or come to a conclusion about it.

A crisis can last for centuries, and during that time, even the difficulties are the gift. It’s like listening to the forest at night— when we’re anxious, or afraid, we’re feeling the time and our place in it, and it’s still good to be alive.

The infinity of the night stars comes to us and aids us, as it does for everyone, foxes, owls, and blinking beetles. In the alternative universe of night sitting, surprises appear, and the ancient light is a great, embracing force. It exists even within the impossible problems. We shall get unforeseen help on the journey because we always do.

~ John Tarrant

From "One Day, My Child, All This Will Be Yours," in Lion's Roar magazine