What the world needs now: a creative writing workshop prompt

Diamond Head State Monument, 2018.

I am often weary of sharing positive words.

Love and light, sunshine and harmony sound great in theory, but the truth is sadness—darkness—has always had a cozy familiarity. There is a certain tranquility I find in embracing that life isn’t always beautiful, that good health isn’t guaranteed, that friendships do fade, that summer always gives way to winter, and the sun is always succeeded by the blackness of night.

It is a precarious understanding of duality: a rose is beautiful, and yet sharp with thorns. Fire brings warmth, and yet it burns. Water sustains life, and still it drowns.

What I need is a method to mind the balance. Gratitude for each passing moment. I don’t have much wisdom to share, but I know serenity is found in the eye of the storm. Riding the waves is a skill that takes curiosity, detachment, and above all, hope that the wave will not drown me; that I will float, and more so, I will rise.

I suppose I’ve arrived at a conclusion deserving of joyous applause, then, in that all is not lost. As long as I am breathing, it never is.

This is peace.