Almost everything that seems to have slipped out of our fingers can be grabbed again—our days, our disposition, our hearts or our lives. It is all a question of how far you can reach, how tightly you can hold onto what you get a hold of, and more importantly, how quickly you can let go of what is dragging you into the dust. Most life is about shaking your head and doing what needs to be done. There are moments where you get to breathe for the sake of breathing. They are spread in between the constant pressure from all around. Don’t take them for granted; breathe deeply, fully, and without remorse. Do not waste what little you get of air that does not cost you anything, especially time. It will come in handy when you heave, struggle, and suffocate amidst all that plagues mice and men.
There is little respite in life, and all rest you get follows a reckoning, and that is the very nature of things, and rarely has anyone stood against it all. But the best course of action, perhaps, the only one, is through.
By saying all this, I do not mean to make you feel inadequate compared to life’s challenges, and by no means do I want to suggest you are not up to the task. On the contrary, I want to say all this because it is a truth as old as time: most who have struggled to live have lived on regardless. These little obstacles shape us, whatever they may be for me, and for you. It is when we are at our limits that we notice how limitless courage can be. The sheer tenacity of those who keep standing despite everything bombarding them is a testament to the will all of us are born with. To survive is an innate human instinct, and to keep going despite the exhaustion, the headwinds of fate, and everything that may push you back is the only way to honour the gods.
Why must Sisyphus keep pushing? Well, what else is there to do? So, if it feels as if you’re going against the current, by all means, keep swimming. There is shore in sight, even if you can’t see it. After all reckoning comes respite, and then it all unravels again. Almost everything that seems to have slipped out of our fingers can be grabbed again. It always has been a question of how far you can reach.