The most trustworthy people in the world are those who have been to the underworld. Those who’ve been torn open, rearranged, and made new by suffering. Myths are riddled with descents into the underworld wherein the hero confronts the darkness of the shadowy depths and reemerges with gifts and lessons. This is a kind of wisdom that is not on offer in the clouds or on earth. It can only be found below.
@jabel that was a really profound read, thanks for sharing.
I've come to think of happiness as something I live in or don't, a choice I make akin to acceptance, rather than any particular emotional state. I think happiness can only exist when joy and sorrow, comfort and suffering, the entire range of human emotion is allowed to be, be felt, be expressed. That's being alive, and being present in the aliveness, which is the ultimate we can do and I don't see how happiness could be anything but that, really.