"Upon completion comes fulfillment.
With fulfillment comes liberation.
Liberation allows you to go on.
Even death is not a true ending.
Life is infinite continuation."
During my time as an ESL teacher, I became familiar with the Japanese concept of "gaman" which I've found enormously useful and edifying for me in all aspects of my life. The definition I looked up just now calls it, "enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity." As a disabled person, I find myself consistently occupying a less than dignified place in the world, so I guess my gaman would be applying what patience I can muster in order to transcend that, if not change it outright. Naturally, being neither Japanese nor the most graceful of persons by any stretch, I often falter--yet by some miracle I am still here and still trying to get it right. Whatever should befall me in the year to come and beyond, I will keep using the beautiful tools I discover to shape my life with patience and dignity. To do anything less would be a shame, indeed.
With fulfillment comes liberation.
Liberation allows you to go on.
Even death is not a true ending.
Life is infinite continuation."
During my time as an ESL teacher, I became familiar with the Japanese concept of "gaman" which I've found enormously useful and edifying for me in all aspects of my life. The definition I looked up just now calls it, "enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity." As a disabled person, I find myself consistently occupying a less than dignified place in the world, so I guess my gaman would be applying what patience I can muster in order to transcend that, if not change it outright. Naturally, being neither Japanese nor the most graceful of persons by any stretch, I often falter--yet by some miracle I am still here and still trying to get it right. Whatever should befall me in the year to come and beyond, I will keep using the beautiful tools I discover to shape my life with patience and dignity. To do anything less would be a shame, indeed.
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