An invincible love

Within you there is always something there waiting to help you, something stronger. There is always an invincible love.

Gentle reader, a very short post for you today. Sometimes the wise words of others say everything you could hope to say, and say it more perfectly than you could ever hope to. In my recent post Renewal, I wrote about my progress along the path to recovery after learning a lesson I should have known all along: that my mental health was not there to be taken for granted. I said:

“When you acknowledge that you have a problem, that you need to make changes, you will be amazed by the events that you set into motion. Unexpected forces will come to your aid.”

I was delighted to receive an unexpected response from my friend @Downy_Birch, who shared with me a quite beautiful quotation from Albert Camus:*

“In the midst of hate, I found there was, within me, an invincible love.

In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile.

In the midst of chaos, I found there was, within me, an invincible calm.

I realised, through it all, that…

In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.

And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.”

This new path in and through your life

These words from Camus resonate perfectly and profoundly with me right now. When life forces you into a difficult situation, you face the choice of whether or not to acknowledge that you have a problem and whether or not you wish to do what needs to be done to resolve it.

When you face such a choice, it is advisable to strip away all distractions and focus on what life is telling you that you need to do. It is likely that the answer will be as as simple and as clear as day. It is more than likely that that answer will be that you must do what needs to be done, no matter how difficult it might be, or how long this new path in and through your life will prove to be.

If you decide to do what needs to be done, you will be amazed by the events that you set in motion. You will be amazed at the invincible love, support and encouragement that you receive from the people that you value in your life. You will also be amazed at what you learn about yourself.

Within yourself, you will find that you have what it takes to follow this new and necessary path.

Within yourself, you will find an invincible summer, an invincible calm, an invincible smile.

You will find within yourself an invincible love.

Gentle reader. Within you there is always something there waiting to help you, something stronger. There is always an invincible love.

May today be nothing but kind to you and  yours.

FOOTNOTES

* When I read @Downy_Birch’s tweet, I thought that I had never happened upon these beautiful words before. However, a quick Google told me that I had, long ago. They are from Albert Camus’s short novel The Outsider. I read this book when I was 16, a book I remember loving at the time, but sadly almost everything about it has ultimately faded from the memory with time. The one thing that I do recall about it was being quite stunned when I reached a pivotal and chilling scene, and realised that it was the obvious inspiration for an early song by one of my favourite bands, namely Killing An Arab by The Cure (which can be found on their album Boys Don’t Cry.

IMAGES

• (Detail from) The queen of hearts – painted by Walter Dean Godlbeck via Wikimedia Commons.
• Renoir – forest-path-1875 via Wikimedia Commons.
• Dülmen, Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche, Rosette — 2022 — 0669 (crop, kreativ) via Wikimedia Commons.