Life is struggle and struggle is beauty

This was what I woke up to. A stunning landscape of jutting mountaintops and lilting fog being enveloped by the warmth of sun struggling to rise and break through the cover of cloud. The scent of spring life awakening pervades the damp air, in an olfactory perfection that would leave perfumiers in tears. All while the cacophony of birds and cicadas and dogs is at once in symphony and solo. Everything is in isolation and unison simultaneously.

Yet we, in our daily lives so often feel alone. We are part of this vast universe, not just as a solitary human but a piece of the ecosystem at large. We are both fundamental and insignificant at once. When we can observe that and accept it we find that life in itself becomes simpler.

Even the sun struggles to rise. Ok, maybe it just sits there while we do all the work so that’s a bad example. But you get the intent. Watching the world come alive in solitude on top of a mountain in Appalachia is a stark reminder of reality; life is struggle and struggle is beauty.

It shouldn’t be easy. It shouldn’t be simple. And that’s where acceptance comes in. We are all in this struggle together. Accept that and see the beauty in the pain. This is growth. Survival is the miracle. And it happens every day.