[This article was kindly shared with us by Maithri Goonetilleke. a medical doctor from Melbourne, Australia. Maithri is also co-founder/director of Possible Dreams International, Inc - a non profit organisation designed to bring tangible hope into the lives of those facing the challenges of extreme poverty, malnutrition, HIV/AIDS and endemic disease. Currently the main focus of their work are the gracious people of Swaziland. Find out more ...]

"One can never consent to creep,
When one feels the impulse to soar". - Helen Keller

One blue sky day about six years ago, when I was still in my final years of medical school, something happened to me. Something which caused my whole world to fall in little tear drops around my feet. It was a day which I will never forget as long as I live. I can still feel the door locking behind me, see myself pulling every curtain closed and shutting out the light. Feel the surface of the pillow into which I wept, until I could weep no more.

This week, as unimaginable as it would seem that history should repeat itself, something very similar to that event, almost its mirror image, happened in my life...

And yet to my own deep surprise. My reaction thus far has been completely different.

6 years ago, my world crumbled around me. I was immobilised by pain. Falling head first into an abyss of hopelesness from which I thought I would never rise.

But somehow, with the help of my beautiful family and friends, I did rise.

Discovering joy and meaning in my life which i never thought possible.

Since that time, at some bump or juncture in this broken road, I guess Maithri must have grown up. ;) Because today, whilst my brow may be bloodied, my head is unbowed.

I am no longer content to be victimised by life.

I know now in the very cells of my being, that nothing that happens to me, can diminish me.

My treasure, is the person that I am.

A very imperfect person. A wounded person.

But someone who dares to inhabit their lives fully. Who loves with the entireity of his being.

Who inspite of all his scars tries each day to understand instead of standing in judgement, to include instead of exclude, to hope rather than despair.

James Allen said "Circumstances dont make a man. They reveal him." And today I understand what he means.

The darkness which we experience is merely a canvass upon which the firelight of our souls can dance.

I have once again been offered a dark invitation, to reach inside; to unfold and unfurl, like the petals of the jasmine; like the stars of the milky way.

And this time, I am ready...

So in this night time of my soul... I raise my eyes to the starry skies....

and say "Yes".

Yes to the music. Yes to the mystery. Yes to what is, and what will be.

I will not break.

I will not creep.

I was born to soar.

My love to you, Maithri.

[This article was kindly shared with us by Maithri Goonetilleke. a medical doctor from Melbourne, Australia. Maithri is also co-founder/director of Possible Dreams International, Inc - a non profit organisation designed to bring tangible hope into the lives of those facing the challenges of extreme poverty, malnutrition, HIV/AIDS and endemic disease. Currently the main focus of their work are the gracious people of Swaziland. Find out more ...]

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