So I just finished reading the second book of Julie Kagawa’s The Blood of Eden series, The Eternity Cure. There were discussion questions at the end, and one of them was this:
Throughout human history, terrible events have also opened the way to good things that would not have happened without tragedy. How do we reconcile the worst life has to offer with the good that sometimes comes in the aftermath?
I don’t have to go over World History once more to know that the question has a valid point; I need only look back on my own life to prove the truth of it. Because truly, I am reaping the fruits of my mistakes. Most of them bitter, but one, the sweetest.
I have long since accepted the fact that I made this humongous mistake. Big enough to have ruined not just my life, but those of others near and dear as well, had I let it. I made amends, but the damage simply cannot be undone. That was the lowest point of my life. But out of it came unexpectedly glorious consequences, none of which would have happened if not for that singular error. They made the ensuing guilt and trauma almost bearable, though the painful memories themselves cannot be erased.
A certain level of callousness detachment was the key to my being able to reconcile the bad with the good that came out of it. I am a cynical, pessimistic person by nature and I tend to brood over my mistakes. But it seems even that has a limit. At that point, it was either get over it or let it drive me crazy. The last semblance of my sanity won out, and here I am today, living to tell about it.
So what does it all mean? For me, it is that conscious effort is needed to overcome the ghosts of the past in order to be able to come to terms with their consequences–whether good or bad–in the present. And a dash of hope to be able to look at the future and see beyond the trappings of a seemingly dismal present.
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