When Your Spark Has Gone..

Each of us will likely experience moments of profound dejection, whether because of circumstance, or our own actions. There is nothing new or profound in that observation.

But consider this - you are not alone in your travails. The Monologue in Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act II Scene 2 reflects that reality beautifully yet forcefully, where Hamlet opines to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern:

'I have of late--but wherefore I know not--lost all my mirth, forgone all

custom of exercises; and indeed it goes so heavily

with my disposition that this goodly frame, the

earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most

excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave

o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted

with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to

me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.

What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason!

how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how

express and admirable! in action how like an angel!

in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the

world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me,

what is this quintessence of dust?'

Sometimes knowing that our experiences are encountered by many provides a modicum of comfort. Periodic existential depression is part of what it means to be human; we can and will recover - the defiant power of the human spirit remains and can be reactivated. There is meaning in our suffering and beyond it.

Always.