We Call It Life: Reflections from the Classroom of Life

By Elwin St. Rose

This work is a walk and a journey into the realities of life. It shares reflections from tragedy and grief to hope and healing. The different pieces of this work, challenge the reader to succor the self, despite the problems and pain of life and in the process, persevere to a place of wellness. This work challenges us to redefine our role in the world and in our relationships. It calls on us to reconstruct our rubric so we can look beyond the casual that we have been taught, to paying attention to the constructive and consequential that we must know. It summons us to give ourselves a chance to be carefully prudent enough to succeed.

It reminds us of our responsibility and at the same time focuses us on our finality. It calls us to authenticity, reminds us of life’s adversity, but also points us to our possibility. It calls us to get away from being gullible and from the gimmicks of our space and from the aura of grandiosity in our interactions, to a place of growth and well-being. It challenges us to get in touch with ourselves and embrace the opportunity of the genesis of a much brighter and fulfilling life in our tomorrow.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 10, 2021
• ISBN: 9781665500562

Elwin St. Rose

Elwin St. Rose is a Minister/Chaplain and trained Therapist with an intense interest in human behavior and interactions. His work with individuals, couples, families and religious communities for well over three decades, has been an indescribable and insightful journey into life and its challenges. A keen student of human dynamics and trained in Behavioral Psychology, he observes and gleans from both the spiritual and behavioral aspects of life and converts his insights into lessons of hope, change and challenge. An avid reader and skillful listener, he spends his time engaging, listening and ever learning from the classroom of life. He lives in Central Florida.

Book preview

WE CALL IT LIFE

1

What is it? A series of ups and downs and good and bad. It’s programmed and apparently moves at its own pace even when it makes us sad. No one can stop it, nor dictate it, or fully control it, efforts notwithstanding. When we came into existence it was already here and defies our understanding,

We call it life.

2

We are never fully prepared to deal with all of its surprises. Even those of us who are most careful and may have received prizes. Things happen and we are left many times with confusion and sadness. Considered small in the grand scheme of life’s broadness,

We call it life.

3

Sometimes it appears like a dream, because its reality can be so harsh. Yet many times we manage to go on and survive and not be completely thrashed. We learn quickly that the seriousness of life, requires the principle of preparation decides outcome and we generate sense from the morass of confusion, that inevitably is to come,

We call it life.

4

We pause and we look, we observe, and we conclude. Yet the very efforts become nothing but sheer futility. The need and quest to make sense out of the illogical flow will only elude. And existence is left on the rubble heap of life, a good day spoilt by the wake of brutality,

We call it life.

5

It’s paradoxical and complex, it deals in opposites, for it gives and it takes. Our efforts are equally paradoxical and complex, we also live in opposites. We win and we lose, we get happy and we get sad, yet the mystery remains. No effort can sometimes clear the senseless shame,

We call it life.

6

Even within the framework of the apparent senselessness, we look carefully and long and can see the beauty of gems that are scattered. Just like the sun in its morning beauty, gives the light of its force as in madness and the evening comes and we lose sight of the beauty as if it’s withered,

We call it life.

7

Then the race is on, survival becomes important and we are all frantic. As children lost and unable to find their way, due to the harassment of time itself. We are awakened to discover that endurance is important and success cannot be defined by just being pragmatic. For the known and the unknown, must exist side by side, for it is the mystery that allows us to delve,

We call it life.

8

In this thing, there is good to be had and bad to experience, yet growth seems the better goal. The choice can be made and the definition can come in, to participate or not participate. The question of all time, the crucible is heated, energy low, we live as if in a bowl. We then observed the dross being removed, the true metal is out and then we anticipate;

We call this Life.

GRIEF

1

Here I stand, in grief I am, in pain that weighs me down. I feel so down I can’t prolong, what causes me to drown. I cry for help and there is none and yet I am undone. But in penitence I seek relief, because of my belief. Despite my fear, my help is near and there will be no more despair.

2

When in my grief I resort to my belief, but I seem to fail because I begin to derail. The hurt and pain make my spirit ever yet so pale, for I remain even as a snail. My soul is troubled and paralyzed and no longer on a journey to actualize. In short I am stuck in grief, contrary to my belief and in shock and disbelief.

3

Grief knows no bounds, it sticks around, until it puts you down. The fight of life is to stick around and shake it to the ground. A wounded helpless heart, a spirit struck so sad, in pain it feels so bad, despite the joys it has had. And though it’s real, there’ll be no deal, except we can repeal.

4

Grief makes me feel so alone and how could it be, that I suffer in secret silent tone? Yet within my grief, I know for sure that I am not alone. I know this is a fact to be and sometimes don’t feel it and hence it is abstract. But I begin to fight and fight my way, because I need to interact.

5

Maybe that’s how it is supposed to be, for no one seems to hear my plea. But I will lift myself and to excel, until I am so free. My grief I feel, even on bended knee, but I know that to be the key. Until my day of spree returns, with joy and perfect glee. I will accept my life that I do know and push until I see.

6

The light of life in jubilee, is what the goal of life should be. So anything that’s up to shred my goal, cannot be my life’s decree. Grief I know can make me slow and take me down to be so low. But I will meet it with the same degree, it tries to inflict on me. For I have found the master key, that augments my capability.

7

Tomorrow then I’ll stand so tall, in pride and recovery. My grief now gone and I’ll hold on, till the plains of discovery. Grief is a part of life you know, but never life itself and if we could but take the blow, our gifts will later overflow. So when grief comes again someday, I’ll think of it that way, though you are grief so tough and so tough your blow, you are not life itself and with me, you will never steal my show.

THE GIFT OF HOPE

1

Life’s challenges require us to hold on to something, that cannot be easily taken away. What can it be without a nature, that speaks to eternal realities? For the crudeness and brutality of life, take away from us everything, even everything that we hold dear and the confusion results, in us not seeing the way. If it exists in the realm of the temporal, then life can and does take it away. For even if our head is of gold, our feet are of clay and life’s challenges come without any delay. The only antidote therefore is Hope.

2

In every major struggle that humanity has ever faced, the thing that has carried the day, is not his ingenuity, intellect or brilliance. It seems to have always been the gift, to hold on to something precious and dear, from which he does not sway. It is something that happens