It will happen sometime that life throws you
The surprisingest struggle, unlike your normal trials.
It will blindside you with its difficulty and perplex you
With the severity of the moods it casts upon you—
Even to the point where you begin to wonder
How much longer you can endure it.
And maybe you and I are different, my friend,
But for what it’s worth, I can tell you that so far in my life,
Such times often boil down either to having
Two competing ideas in mind at the same time,
Or tougher still, two competing desires
Embedded deeply in the will—
Far below the level where words and emotions
And reasoning and decisions happen.
And you may despair at whether
It can ever be straightened out—
Or even mad at yourself that you
Haven’t got it solved already.
And you may be afraid at what’s happening to you,
Thinking it all so strange and being
Tortured that it makes no sense.
But from where I sit, it makes perfect sense, actually,
For you are in the middle of discovering something:
You have come upon one of those rare times
When there is a burr so far under your saddle
That you cannot reach it yourself,
And where, unlike at other times,
The pain is so bad you can’t ignore it.
And when your own devices fail,
What can you do but find
The help of another to get it out?
And you may not see the opportunity in this moment,
But you, my friend, are in a spot to level-up substantially
On your skill at being a human—discovering
What kind of person you can become
With not just your own help, but the help of another.
And though it may take you some number of tries to find one,
There are people on this Earth who have the skill and wisdom
To draw you out, from the level of your shallowest platitudes
To the level of your deepest desires—
Until the conflict has been discovered
And laid out on the table,
Where you can make the life-changing decision
And be at peace with yourself from the inside out.
As for me, I will always believe the assurance of the ancients
That “two are better than one”.
