We delve deep into our thoughts and the darkest part of our mind searching for something that will set us free. Free from this world, from the constant struggle, the constant suffering, the constant pain. Our instinct is to seek out the one thing that will bring us relief from the day to day grind. For some it comes in the form of pills, needles, and deep plumes of toxic fumes. Fumes that fill the lungs with hot burning sensations that ripples across the skin like a million needles. For others, escape comes in the form of liquid poison that slams into the stomach like molten steel. The numbness it brings reduces all feelings into blurred visions of happiness, anger, and despair. In some cases, memories are reduced to blackness without consequence until the next day. It is a never-ending cycle. Day to day, work is completed and when the clock sounds the search for freedom begins. It is a race for many, to forget the day, the world, and the struggle to simply breath.
But is this the only answer? Is it the only way to free oneself from the struggles of life? The only way to escape the pain, despair, frustration, anger, and weariness of it all. Where does one look? Is it found behind the doors of our sacred halls that continual preach repentance and salvation? Can we find it in our homes, in our family circles filled with love, support, and safety? Family circles that keep us safe from harm as long as we do not venture out into the world. The answer is not so easy to come by. It is illusive as the end of the rainbow and its glorious pot of gold. Always visible but never found, never reached as it always disappears the closer you get.
What do we do then to find release and the freedom we so desperately crave? Do we stay deep in thought and prayer each day, hoping for the answer? When will it all end? When will the glorious promise of heaven above finally come to bestow the sacred promise we were given? Until then the exhaustion, pain, and suffering continue. We fight on to survive another day. It is not all hopeless, our days are what we make it. Happiness, joy, love, and relationships keep the soul energized with hope. True freedom and happiness will be found. It is only a matter of time. Whether in this life or the next. Step by step, the only path is forward.
Dr Johnny G. Chavez III 