“You are going through all this emotional upheaval because your coziness has been, in some small or large way, addressed.”
—Pema Chodron
When things come together, life feels great. When things fall apart and we feel groundless, what then? Does anything come together that doesn’t, at some point, fall apart?
The more sudden or surprising the onset of suffering, the easier it is to form a narrative of pain, confusion and regret. Those are very real and reasonable feelings, but what happens if the stories we tell ourselves no longer serve us?
In The Wisdom of No Escape, Pema Chodron explains, “Once you know that the purpose of your life is simply to walk forward and to continually use your life to wake you up rather than put you to sleep, then there’s a sense of wholeheartedness about inconvenience, wholeheartedness about convenience.”
The alarm is set for a reason, so why do we hit snooze? What would it feel like to pull back the covers, take a deep breath, and begin?
Is it possible to abandon coziness with a sense of gratitude?
—Jessica Lien, Prairiewoods development coordinator