Open Your Windows

In a recent concert I attended, the Singer/Songwriter performing paused to talk about despair and suffering. He said that often we are our own worst enemy. This is his wisdom:

[Despair] is an unnecessary thing, I believe it's self-perpetuating. And I know that in my darkest hour, a lot of times I am chewing the cud of my own sorrow. And that's dangerous, because there is Light all around you, you just have to lift up your head and look in the periphery. We put blankets over our heads, and blinders; we close all the windows, pull all the blinds. It's very dangerous to do that.

Open Your Windows. -Sufjan Stevens, Portland, OR, 6/2015

When The Mountain Defeats You

Holocene, Bon Iver
Beginning and ending choruses:

And at once I knew I was not magnificent
Strayed above the highway aisle
Jagged vacance, thick with ice
And I could see for miles, miles, miles


And at once I knew I was not magnificent
High above the highway aisle
Jagged vacance, thick with ice
But I could see for miles, miles, miles 

Have you ever had a time when you realized you weren't as strong as you hoped? What do you when your mountains defeat you? Why is it important at times, to feel small, to see weakness? How do you forgive yourself? How do you heal? How do you move forward?