Dear Zack,
I am sorry to hear about your father’s stroke, and that you are going through a challenging time, but I have found that embedded within these challenges there is almost always the opportunity for renewal or transformation. That is the plain but uncomfortable truth. I say this with a much-conflicted heart, but it seems clear to me that the heartbreaks that routinely befall us – personally, societally, or universally – are, in fact, the necessary gifts of change. These painful upheavals always provide us with the option for self-destruction or for transcendence. Heartbreak can be the engine of obliteration or growth. The choice is ours…
…Overwhelming and almost impossible – perhaps even thankless – task(s) [can be] a defining experience for you. True growth comes when we accept the mantle of that which we feel is beyond us. If you can grasp it, Zack, and stay steady under the weight of the expectations placed upon you, you’ll be able to look back on this, not just as someone who made things better for your father and your family, but from the perspective of a version of yourself you never knew was possible.
I say this as much to myself as I do to you, but being looked to for guidance is a privilege – uncomfortable, baffling, and sometimes overwhelming, but a privilege just the same. We are all being called forth in the service of something.
Zack, please send my love and thoughts to your father.
Love, Nick
