Today as I am surrounded by a deep sense of 'aloneness', in this moment of solemn contemplations, when I’m forced to question friendships,
and when my mustard seed-sized faith gets lost in the dust of my travails, I
reach deep down into the recesses of my being and I emerge thankful…ever so
thankful that for every time that life has forced me into this place, I have
come up better, stronger, wiser.
Duke Senior (a seventeenth century Shakespearean character from
the play “As you like it”) deposed of his kingdom, stripped not only of his
title, but more so his dignity…ashamed and nearly bereft of companionship in
the Forest of Arden, whispered these words to his audience of nature…. “Sweet
are the uses of adversity.” In typical
Shakespearean wisdom the former duke launches into the lessons that only stillness
and solitude can teach.…in the stillness of the moment he concludes that
nature is more eloquent than speeches, brooks teach far more than books and
stones hit deeper than sermons. In the serenity he listens…and he hears, maybe
for the first time the vibe of his own heart…he listens and he hears, in those
adverse circumstances, the voice of God…and finally he comes face to face with the life’s most substantive
matters.
Now without a doubt, the conclusion drawn by Duke Senior is
one we all come to at some point in our experience. As we mature and look back
at our ‘valley of despondency’ experiences, we very often find ourselves
thinking “I wouldn’t be where I am today, had I not gone through that.” So
yes, inevitably we get wiser after we’ve been through it. But what struck me as
instructive about Shakespeare’s unlikely hero is the fact that his utterance is
made at what was probably the lowest point in his life…in the moment! For someone so accustomed to pomp and
ceremony, so used to the hum of activity, likely having heard declarations of
life-long friendships and loyalty…now deposed, defamed and almost friendless,
his ability to draw the lessons in the moment is something not to be overlooked
– a lesson we all would do well to learn.
How many of us have learned to embrace the value of
adversity while the storms are howling? Too often we are too busy being
unhappy, too wrapped up in self-pity, too unwilling to forgive, too reluctant
to let go, to ever discover the sweet uses of adversity. We envelope ourselves
in worry and fear, we make despair our bedfellow when all the time we are
called to be still…to wait, to extend faith beyond the realm of what is
humanly possible, to study in quietude the benefits of our current
experience. So today as I reach into the
recesses of my being, and as I emerge my mind is inundated with the reminder
that ‘sweet are the uses of adversity’…and in typical intentional fashion, I
pull out my journal, and I question “what is good about this my time of
aloneness and despair?”…and I write… and a deep sense of peace envelopes me ...…..and
once again my heart is content.
