Zero

I often think about the life paths we follow and the difficulties each of us face.

The worst of life's traumas always feel like the aftermath of some devastating explosion. When we experience the death of a loved one, the life we lived and shared with them is destroyed before our eyes. The shards of what was once familiar can only be seen through the veil of loss thereafter.

Reluctantly… we move on.

The hope is always that someday the devastation and hurt will be so far behind us that we can endure the loss with better understanding and renewed hope.

The same can be said when we find our view of the world altered by a new life or a new perspective. Seeing your child for the first time will also place you at ground zero. Before you are a parent, you are single person who may be part of a larger family or part of a marriage. You hope for the future together. Yet when you have a child, you are no longer a single part of anything. You are a parent. The responsibility for another life that looks to you as their protector and provider takes hold like nothing else.

From that moment on, your world changes forever.

Some people call these moments epiphanies of life and some call them paradigm shifts. I always think of them as explosions. The life that existed before these moments can only exists in our memories and in our hearts. You can never again spend time with the one who was lost but you can forever hold them in your heart and mind because they continue to mean so much. Similarly, you will never again see the world as someone who did not have a child after you have one. That persona is gone and who you are from that moment on will always be someone else. Someone who can share life's experiences, lessons and joys.

These life events may appear great or small to the rest of the world, but inside of us, they are world breakers.

Your first love, your first job, your first paycheck, your first betrayal, your first great accomplishment… In every life, we find ourselves starting over again (and again). We laugh, we cry... and we continue.

In the end, these moments are what make life a tragic, joyful, adventurous, terrifying and wonderful miracle.