Finding Meaning in the Decline

It can be healthy to take a step back and chuckle at our folly.

My family and I were returning from a weekend away at a cabin. One of my children is known to suffer from the occasional car sickness, and that trip home turned out to be another struggle for her stomach. Wracked with the pain of nausea and the all-too-common anxiety about potentially vomiting, my wife could see my daughter’s mental catastrophe unfolding before her. Our kiddo was stuck on the fear of throwing up and was making herself more sick in the process.

In a masterclass of parenting genius, my wife began making a game to see who had the strongest grip as they clutched hands together. Before you know it, both of them were laughing and joking. The nausea did eventually come back into focus, but this time, it was met with a lighter touch of consciousness because a space was created from suffering.

We all have to find a way to get a little bit of space from our current predicament. There is no point in drowning in our doom, despair, fear, and panic. We also need this space so that other seeds of life can grow, including humor, playfulness, joy, and hope. Sometimes, the most radical thing we can do in the face of all this absurdity is to create moments of joy. It can loosen the grip of enveloped pain and shake loose despair that has grown too comfortable in our space.