The Beauty of Destruction

An old building that once touched the sky, crumbles into nothing more than a pile of rubble and debris—a pale comparison of the great structure it used to be. And in a few years time, something bigger and better takes its place.

We often look at creation and life as something amazing; renewal and preservation as something marvelous. But yet, on the opposite side of the spectrum, there is something so awe worthy and amazing about destruction that it sparks a great sense of interest inside of us, or at least I know it does in me. We often look at the two—creation and destruction—in terms of good vs. bad, life vs death, light vs. shadow, etc… but does destruction really have to be the essence of negativity? Like all things, there is no beginning without an end, and nothing lasts forever except Time itself as we know it. Sometimes it takes the imminent destruction of one thing (or many) to cause the creation of something else much newer and better than it was before. As we recognize and respect destruction for what it is—a way of paving a path for the birth of something new—the line that separates opposite from opposite, creation from destruction becomes blurred. Soon before we know it, what was once viewed as something to be feared becomes a process of life and renewal in and of itself.

Without one, how could we possibly come to know the other?

A Dream to Remember

Some say that dreams are a way in which we become connected with the spirit world. Often we dream of things such as deceased relatives or long lost friends and find ourselves pondering the significance of what appears to be an inexplainable phenomena. Are these people simply just on our mind? Is this an evocation of subconscious thought? Is this all just explainable by an understanding of basic biological and neuroscientific properties of the brain? … or could it just be that some things in life are just meant to go unanswered?

I remember the dream as if it were a part of my everyday reality. It was a beautiful spring day. The great yellow sun sat in the sky bathing the earth in its radiance. A soft breeze gently rolled across the air, providing a pleasing compliment to the mildly warm temperature and the pastel blue horizon. The door to my grandmother’s kitchen was open, and I remember standing at the edge of the kitchen table by the doorway admiring the beautiful weather. I remember at one point taking the time to notice a pair of my grandfather’s old Italian leather boots out on the porch—he always used to wear them. But I often found myself back at the corner of that kitchen table standing there by the open doorway. It would seem as though I was meant to be there for a reason: to see my grandfather. Like an angel emerging from the light of Heaven, I remember he made his entrance from the brightness of the day and walked into the house. It was a comforting feeling seeing him standing there, he looked the same way he did nearly ten years ago before his passing. I knew inside me he had been dead, but I knew that what I was seeing was real, he was there alive and in the flesh. I don’t remember exchanging words with him, I just know that I was happy and I remember living out the rest of the day with him and my other family members with those feelings smiling inside me. And then like the blink of an eye, I was awake.

April 5, 2011 will mark the ten year anniversary of my grandfather’s death. I haven’t found myself thinking about him too much lately, and the last time I dreamt of him was after his death several years ago. Some may search for a perfectly rational, scientific answer to what I experienced, but I have reason to believe that my dream happened because it was meant to be. I believe my grandfather was there in my dream, that he was real, but I still ask myself why is it that he decided to show up now? Did he want to tell me something, to prepare me for some future happening, to comfort me?Or maybe he simply wanted to say hello and let me know that he is always watching over me? Perhaps I will never know the true answer, but I do know that the time I spent with my grandfather then and there inside my dream was precious time, and a moment I will never forget.

Until we meet again, Pop Pop, rest peacefully.

Piecing Together Happiness

What makes us happy? An age old question that today is still trying to be discovered and completely understood. This past school year in college, I took an English course in the spring semester that was very writing intensive. Among the few papers we had to write, the first and probably the most intriguing to me was the one centered around actually trying to determine for ourselves what makes us happy. We read an article from online magazine, the Atlantic, actually titled What Makes Us Happy? by writer Joshua Wolf Shenk, in which he wrote about a specific Harvard case study investigating the key to happiness.

"Is there a formula--some mix of love, work, and psychological adaption--for a good life?" Shenk questioned. Perhaps amidst all the experimentation and critical thinking we are overlooking the true meaning to living happily. Maybe it isn't about trying so hard to find the secret to being happy, maybe it's more about accepting happiness for what it is -- simplicity. Sometimes the simplest things in life can be the hardest to understand. We as humans, with our inquisitive nature, always try to find complexity within simplicity. Maybe we should just take a smile for a smile, a hug for a hug, and love for love, because when it all comes down to it, they are all like intricate little puzzle pieces that each have a place within a much bigger puzzle. Once we have our pieces together, so to say, we can assemble the puzzle and admire the big picture. However, sometimes in life we may lose sight of how important each one of these "puzzle pieces" really is-- it only takes one to make the puzzle incomplete. Once we find out what we're missing, we can, with a sigh of relief, finally realize that our "puzzle" is complete and that we are finally happy.

Link to Joshua Wolf Shenk's Article:

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/06/what-makes-us-happy/7439/