Life holds uncomfortable truths. Often, it drags us into the shadows of our own hearts, into places where the questions are so dark, it extinguishes the light any answers can muster. And in those shadows, the rawness of our humanity stares back at us.
There is the yearning for the death of a loved one who suffers deeply. To some, it feels like mercy, a release from unbearable pain. To others, it may seem like the dark evil within us, whispering of endings we dare not admit. Is such a yearning an act of love, or a betrayal of it?
There is the sinking feeling of disappointment at the birth of a child, when joy is absent and silence fills its place. A thought society condemns, yet it is part of the messy spectrum of being human. But is this honesty of emotion a hidden truth of humanity, or a failure of it?
There is the strange emptiness at the summit of achievement. The longed-for goal, finally reached, yet satisfaction refuses to linger. For some, this emptiness becomes the spark that fuels the next pursuit. For others, it is the spark that builds into burnout. Is such emptiness a fire that drives, or one that consumes?
And then there is the longing for freedom from being beaten to the floor by failure, the wish to never again taste its bitterness. Is that freedom a worthy goal, or a morbid craving of a soul already crushed?
Life does not always give us answers. Sometimes, it leaves us only with the questions, and the courage to hold them.
—Osasu Oviawe