People who you love, and who love you, will get lost. Hopes and dreams will get lost. Nest-eggs and finances will get lost. You will get angry, frustrated, and sad. You will become manic with anxiety and be paralyzed with fear. You will trip over your own feet to find your footing. You will fight to stay on a very hard path even when you don't want to be on it. You will hurt. It will be overwhelming and powerful and unlike anything you have ever faced before.
It is a long journey through a dark and unfamiliar woods, so embrace your inner Hansel or Gretel. Leave yourself breadcrumbs. You will get lost. Like they did. You will face obstacles, make sacrifices and battle adversity. Like they did. But hold onto hope, because you can find your way home.
Do things for yourself and others to help remind you who you are. Pull closer those who love you through what is happening to you. Use your strength to hang on to the important things and let go of everything else. Embrace the little victories and forgive yourself any defeats. Adjust your expectations because this is a new you and that means new goals. Hold onto the dreams that mean something to you, recognize and accept your new dreams, and try not to mourn the dreams lost or put on hold. (Trust me, dream alteration is not easy.)
Find grace and beauty in your new landscape. Even the rockiest paths have the occasional flower along their edges. Allow yourself the freedom to see light even in the dark. Envision the good that can come from the bad. Make the smallest and simplest things matter the most. These are the breadcrumbs that can help you find your way.
There will be moments when you feel so lost you believe there is no way to ever be found. Search deep for yourself in those moments, because you are still there. We only feel pain when we are alive. Take comfort in that. You survive.
Reach when you feel you are drowning. Someone will take your hand. Even if it is the hand of a stranger, grip tightly and hold on. Sharing can be a major breadcrumb basket. A gentle way of seeing the pieces of you gathering together again, through the comforting eyes of another.
Basically, the philosophy of no mud, no lotus. It takes rain to make mud. It takes mud for a lotus to blossom and grow. Your suffering is part of what it takes to survive.
Getting lost is what happens before you find yourself again. And, you are worth finding.
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