Crisis.

I was doing some photocopying for a customer at work & I had no idea what I was copying but I glanced at the content of one particular page. I saw this:

"In Chinese, the word for disaster is the same as opportunity"

I swear, the Chinese impress me so often with their wise ways. Look up Chinese proverbs & you'll be amazed to find your fave quotes amongst them. I read how with their culture being based upon yin & yang, everything must be balanced.. so for something to be negative, it must offer a positive. Right down to their words. I love the way language works. If I had ever gone through with my plans to go to university, English is what I would have studied without a doubt. Maybe I will yet! In my opinion though, as complex as it is, the English language can be straight forward & dull in comparison with others. For instance, we have one or two words for love. LOVE, that phenomenon that you can never explain, the emanating feeling that just resounds in your heart, that can turn your entire existence upside down. In Sanskrit, there are 96. How inexpressive English can be? I love the richness of these explorative foreign languages. Look at me using 'love' so flippantly ;) wonder what the Sanskrit word is for 'strong appreciation'.

Also whilst on my travels in Egypt recently I came across countless ways to express the English word 'grace' in Arabic. This happened through asking the henna artist for my name 'Zoë Grace' on my arm. After he had finished, I went to a half-Syrian half-Australian friend I had made & asked her to read the writing on my arm. She was confused, she knew the first part said Zoë, but she couldn't read the second word. At one point she said it read 'tishi'... Then she called over her Syrian mother, who read it as 'Zoë Grace' (to which I was relieved, I didn't fancy Zoë Tishi on my arm for the next fortnight). I wondered why it wasn't obvious the first time that it said Grace, so I looked it up. It turns out there are many, many uses of the word 'grace' in Arabic, things that we would use much different terms for. In English, you'd have things like 'favour', 'merit', etc., and then 'elegance' maybe, and 'charm' - I don't need to give you an English lesson. But in Arabic, you'd even use the term 'grace' to describe something like painting a pot. I take this to mean 'grace the pot with paint'? How interesting! So my name got lost in translation. (Side note: since staying in Egypt & making friends with locals, I'm seriously contemplating learning Arabic! It's fascinating.)
Aaanyway, this Chinese word I mentioned earlier, which is something along the lines of 'Crisis', grabbed my attention with full force & now I've been thinking. A lot.
Destruction does not mean that you cannot rebuild... Am I right? I'm right. Destruction can be used to describe loss on any scale. Towns can be destructed by freak weather storms. A mind can be destructed by a relationship breaking down. IIII would relate most to the latter. But a life does not end when you lose someone. It does not immediately cease. You can FEEL like your life is over when a loved one passes away for example - as though they have taken your heart with theirs - but it is a fact that you still remain on this earth. Your heart beats, your soul lives.
A home does not 'end' when it is struck by lightning. Sure, the building may have crumbled. But that's just the house. The physical. The inhabitants of that house, the survivors, they still exist, so they REBUILD their home.
Crisis offers two things; an end, & a beginning. Which will you place your focus on?
If you don't live in a bubble removed from reality, then I'd guess whilst you're reading this you're most likely recalling times where you've faced a problem & in overcoming it, you've grown, you've learnt. If that obstacle has served it's purpose, you are better off. You've strengthened in character. It's important to remember that change, no matter how much you dislike it, is a necessary process in every area of this universe. Just look at how nature reflects that: the seasons, the tide, the earth's orbit, the food chain, & so on. It's also equally important to remember that change cannot happen if everything stays the same. Most blatant statement of the millennium right there, yeah! But think about it, you can't learn a lesson if all you've ever known is perfection. That would make you a robot. And robots don't know much when it comes to matters of the heart. (They don't have one.) This is why crisis truly does have split meaning, wherever in the world you are. Disaster and opportunity go hand in hand & there is no denying it.

Whatever disaster I'm facing can be overcome, & for some reason this week in particular I'm tripping over tons of reminders of that. So here I am writing this (for goodness knows who). Every cloud has a silver lining; The grass is greener on the other side; There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Each of these clever little idioms point to one thing: a shitty situation gets better. It has to! No matter what it is, there is an opportunity for better things. Whilst your heart is still beating it means you are alive & therefore there is a way. You just have to be strong enough to find it, which is perfectly possible to do. Every human has a secret reserve of superhuman strength! Believe me. When the time calls for it, you amaze yourself with your ability. Hey, if you want to give in to the pain & give up on finding a solution, do it. It's your choice. Let life cave in on you & become an emotional zombie. You'll shut down inside, you'll be miserable company, you'll eventually get your depression diagnosis & you can start to rely on pills to function & you can end up a wreck simply existing rather than living.... Or, don't be afraid to feel.

"Pain is weakness leaving the body"

I hope you realise that you are capable of coping! We have potential that half of us simply do not realise or understand. But there comes a point where you do. Now, even during my pitiful state of snot & tears under my duvet whining 'I'm so alone', my grip on reality has never been stronger.

You don't start at the gym with the goal of losing weight/toning up, & then the first time you reach a pain barrier, just let the bar fall on top of you & say 'oh well. I'll never be fit, time to go home!' Well, if you do, cancel your membership immediately & spend your money on cakes instead. Using fitness as an analogy is common, but that's because it's so accurate: the physical aspects of life reflecting the emotional aspects is kind of that way on purpose - it's the circle of life. Just like lifting weights is hard on your body & painful & you start to shake & sweat drips & you're almost crying because you think you can't push anymore & DOMS kills like a bitch the next day(!), so is the case with issues of the mind & heart. You CAN deal with it, you can make the right decision even when you feel like you'll snap if you argue one more time, or cry another night... And the next day, yeah it'll sting to think about. But your alternative is to go spend that money on cakes & get fatter. *shrugs*
So go ahead, keep crying it out, what the hell eat some chocolate, watch movies, lose yourself in music, go for walks, take up kickboxing! (Great stress reliever, trust me). It will end, you will be stronger. Your will is more powerful than you thought.

Lots of love,

Zoë Tishi

Enjoy a picture of me in the Red Sea without a care in the world.