We Grow Accustomed To The Dark Redux | In-Between the Pages

This is a you piece. You are at stake.

Below is a piece that I did back in Nov. I thought I would post again here. I found relevance and a new live in it again. All the disruptions being cast at me from every angle a retouched post felt right.

Media outlets are still thriving off painting pictures of doom ahead for everyone. And, we are perpetuating it. I’ve learned from many people smarter than me that:

I would never want anyone to have the perception that I am a negative and a destructive person. Yet, perception is reality. It’s hard for people to assume positive intent when we decide to live in the dark to long.

If we spend to much time in that negative space and darkness we can lose our identities. The very things we are so passionate about will lose their luster and brilliance. Before long, you will become accustomed to it and it will change you. Our emotion is powerful and it can make us cynical and close minded. It can hijack our passions and replace them with fear and rhetoric.

I’ve enjoyed watching from a distance what the news, social media, and other mediums do to get our attention. “Fake news” is real. I study anything I read before I react to it. It takes me longer to discern fact from fiction, but keeps my perspective cleaner and less biased.

What I love reading is how someone on social media has used their disappointment. How they have come to terms with it and now uses it as a catalyst in a positive way. To work even harder towards bringing their passions to life.

You can contrast that with others who have gone all in with their disappointment in what they see or hear. They become blinded by it. Isolated from everyone by it. Even worse, they become handicapped by it, never reaching their optimal selves.

After all, what doesn’t kill us, and none of this will, only makes us stronger. Learn from it. Embrace it in a healthy way. Lean into it. Then use it to jump from to be even stronger than you were before all this happened.

Thank you all for the inspiration you provide me. I read as much of it as I can. You are amazing. Enjoy the best parts of the rest of this week, you deserve it. No one can take that from you. No deciding vote can take that away. No executive orders can take that away from you. You are still, very much you. You might be a little more for wear or feel shredded, even bruised. But, you are still you. It is your choice to safe guard it, feed it, and unify others with it.

You are capable of incredible work and its time the rest of the world gets to see the best version of yourself.

I got a couple more posts incoming this week before the end of the week hits. Stay tuned. I would love any and welcome all feedback if you have any.

– Shawn