It’s The Things That Shock You That Wake You Up
It’s usually the things that shock you that open your eyes and wake you up.
It’s the soul-shattering moments that make you realize who you really are, who you want to be, and what kind of life you want to live.
It’s the moments that completely shatter you that show you who’s going to be there for you and who you’re better off without.
It’s the heartbreak that makes you question everything about love until it leads you to the greatest love of all.
It’s the difficult moments that shape us. It’s the hard truths that teach us the lessons we need to learn and it’s the pain that makes us grow.
It’s the things that we completely didn’t see coming that force us to look for answers, to reinvent ourselves, to fight back, to rise up and find our own path.
It’s the things that drown us that make us want to fight for our lives.
It’s always the things that break us that help us heal ourselves.
It’s always the people who let us down that push us into the arms of the ones who truly care.
It’s always the ones who didn’t choose us that force us to choose ourselves.
It is only when we actively divest ourselves of the things that weigh us down and the things that make our lives harder that we can truly evolve and find real meaning in our lives, find closure, find our purpose and find our true calling.
It is only when we decide to let go of the residue from the past heartbreaks, obstacles, and tragedies that we can truly live a healthy life. A life that is free of unwarranted fear, negativity, and toxicity.
The universe wants us to be happy (or so I’d like to believe) — it’s the end goal. And sometimes, we have to go through difficult phases of self-reflection and transitional periods to understand which direction the universe wants us to go to and what it really wants from us. Sometimes we have to truly wallow in our misery so we can learn how to bask in our happiness.
Sometimes we have to lose all hope before we find unwavering faith. 
Rania Naim is a poet and author of the new book All The Words I Should Have Said, available here.
