After somebody walks through Hell — survives multiple crises that could have literally killed them or left them a forever-crippled husk — they look around and ask, "Is this all?"

In the growing gaps between feeling infinite gratitude, they're disappointed. Justice demands that they should have gotten something for their escape, some new superpower or magic ring or spiritual revelation or deep wisdom ... or at least major recognition, a medal and a handshake and a round of applause for returning unbroken and sorta-mostly-kinda OK, if not fully recovered.

Instead, they're thrown back into the trenches, sent out to fight again, to punch the clock and earn a living and pay the bills to support their family. Nobody seems to notice. They're penalized for low productivity during the time they were away. They're exhausted, and they still ache from damage that will never heal.

It's unfair, it's undeserved, it's totally tragic.

And what can they do about it? Well, perhaps there's nothing to do, yet three things to be:

• be thankful — try to fill the dark gaps with conscious awareness of having been blessed, for a little longer, with more life and time to explore and explain, to create and connect, to learn and to love ... and be happy for tiny gifts of lovingkindness from those few fellow souls who do recognize and constantly cherish one's survival ...
• be accepting — attempt to practice "radical acceptance", see clearly all that happened, and embrace it ... cradle it with self-compassion, hold and hug it tight, and allow the light to enter through the wounds ...
• be awake — strive to see the infinite beauty that pervades the world, in the small and large, the hard and soft, around and between and within everything that is ... and live in that "state of constant total amazement" ...

Yes, and just be ... and is that the new superpower?

(for SMB; cf Parachute Color (2011-12-06), Watch the Wound (2015-07-24), Radical Acceptance of Damage (2015-08-26), Mantra - Let Go and Let Be (2015-12-02), Stand by You (2017-01-11), ...) - ^z - 2018-10-27