I recently finished reading a novel by CS Lewis, Till We
Have Faces, a retelling of the mythological story of Cupid and Psyche. The story is told from the perspective of one
of Psyche’s sisters, Orual, who opens by saying that what she’s about to share
is an accusation against the gods for the terrible life she has led. Then she begins to list her misfortunes; her
mother is dead, her father hates her for being a girl and ugly, she loses her
sister (the person she loved the most), she’s in love with a married man that
doesn’t reciprocate her feelings… And the list goes on. She’s so focused on the negative that she can’t
see goodness and that’s really what touched me most about this novel because it’s
so easy to focus on the things that suppress light.
I lost my job, then my grandma fell and we were worried about
her not surviving the surgery, then my neighbor (a close friend) suddenly
passed, then I lost my dearest companion (Dollar)… I could remain so focus on the challenges
that I don’t see the goodness that also happened during those difficult times. I have a new opportunity to change careers,
my family came together to help grandma, my neighbor’s wife has become a close
friend too, with much kindness friends and family have helped me through the
death of my pet. I am learning that even in the darkest moments there is light
seeping through, God’s way of showing us that difficult moments are not void of
Him. AND when we focus on Him, on those small details that show us goodness
getting through the challenges are easier and make our hearts resilient in hope
that all is not lost.
On Saturday, my neighbor came over with a quilt she made
covered in hearts and she told me, “I know you have been sad over Dollar and I
wanted to give you this (quilt) because I want to see you smile. So, please use it and when you look down at
the hearts remember how much Dollar loved you.”
I was so moved by her gift because she has just lost her husband and here
she was at my door, trying to help me get through my loss. Then I understood that difficult moments give
everyday heroes the chance to shine.
Thus, I am trying not to look at things as a laundry list of things gone
wrong I am focusing on the light that wants to make it in.
In CS Lewis novel, the protagonist eventually understands that
she focused on things that embittered her soul and refused to see all the
goodness that coexisted around her.
The silence of the gods made her come to the understanding that if she
had seen things from a more optimistic point-of-view her life wouldn’t have
been as void of light as she made it. If
she had only seen the love that surrounded her…
Thus, as I closed the novel, I decided to take that
lesson to heart and focus on the love in my life and not on the laundry list of woes.
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