One of my favorite movies is Eat Pray Love. Julia Roberts plays a woman who has lost touch with herself and with love. Throughout the movie she travels to Italy, India and Bali and gains many lessons. While in Italy, Julia visits a dark ruined place in Rome. The man who is with her explains that ruin is a gift. Ruin is the road to transformation.
Often times when we fall short and make mistakes in life we feel pain and anguish. When all these mistakes pile up on top of one another we feel like we are ruined. We feel as though there is no way that life can possibly go on. In my life, I have experienced very low and depressed times. Fighting a war within myself to continue you on but also staying in a state of grief and depression. When you are at war with your spirit, there is no way you can grow. I believe the spirit, the soul and the flesh must be in tune, in sync to produce growth.
Most times we expect growth and transformation to be a beautiful thing. Ever so focused on the new being we become. Often forgetting the journey it will take to get their. To achieve transformation or growth, we have to understand something had to end, die if you will so something new can be reborn. The thought of dying to most is sad and painful. Why do we think we can skip this stage and head straight to the end of our transformed selves? To become new, our old must parish. So often we are attached to the vary parts of ourselves that we urge ourselves to get rid of. We cling to the parts of ourselves that we can not stand because we are comfortable where we are and we would rather hold on to the horrible parts than let them go and risk loosing everything. But, "ruin is the road to transformation"
Even myself, I hold on to the vary things that are hurting me spiritually, mentally and emotionally. Everyday I hold on to them, I am pushing away the possibility of ruin and transformation. Forgetting "There is beauty in the breakdown". We all struggle with letting ourselves go, we all struggle with being alone and naked to the world or our "friends". But the important thing to remember is, your ruin is not the end. Your ruin will lead to your transformation. Embrace the falling of fortresses built inside you that have been held up by fear for so many years. Embrace the falling of rain on the fertile soils in your heart that have been dry from the drought of love. Take today and except your flaws, your shortcomings and your fears and look them in the eye. Begin your ruin, so you can make way for transformation.
with love and peace,
Kasai Marie Carter
December 4th 2011
