Something that I have struggled with for a good portion of my life is putting up a wall, an emotional barrier that allows no one, not a soul, to come anywhere close to my thoughts, opinions or beliefs. Why would I do this? For the same reason that gates are put up, for the same reason that every building has walls. To protect from things on the outside, things that they fear. This emotional wall that builds itself around your heart and soul, it keeps people out, and locks you inside. Safe. Alone. When a wall is built around someone to protect them from pain and sorrow that they are so afraid of, they are given seclusion as well as peace and quiet. But what they do not always realize is that they are also cutting off other things than just pain. They are cutting off love.
The problems that I have found with this is that when you cut off love, you are welcoming in pain. When you cut off love, you are creating pain. So then, in building a wall to keep the pain out, you are cutting off love from those outside, thus creating an internal pain. And that pain is not something easily fixed. Pain inflicted on by yourself is so much worse than any pain that someone else could put you through. This "solution" to pain is just about as effective as a small child that is affraid of the dark going and hiding in a small and cramped closet. It might seem like a good idea at first, but the longer you are crammed inside the more uncomfortable you will feel. Not only have you not solved the problem because you have not escaped the dark, but locked yourself inside, but you also now have no room to grow, no room to breath.
Hiding never solves a problem in the long run. It only makes things worse than they already were.
So then, what is a better way to tackle pain? Just as it would be smarter for a small child to turn on the lights and take a look around, so it would be smarter for someone to "turn on the lights" and take a clear look at their situation and what is really happening. Sure, it might be a struggle to walk through the dark to turn on the switch, but once you get there, you will be so much better off.
Food for thought.
-Ashley
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Thoughts Turned to Ink
PoetryA collection of thoughts, poems and short stories for the pure purpose of thinking. If you enjoy stretching your mind to thinking about abstract ideas, underlying reasons, mysteries of life, and/or growing in your faith then this might be something...
