April 4
The way up leads first downward. Whoever crosses the dark wood and the depths steps out again at last — to see the stars once more.
The Divine Comedy (Inferno) (freely rendered)
Listening mode
The way up leads first downward. Whoever crosses the dark wood and the depths steps out again at last — to see the stars once more.
Looking back, a hard time often acquires a direction. You speak of it as the phase after which something became clear, and the story is even true. Only, that direction didn't exist back then. You didn't go downward in order to arrive somewhere. You kept going because standing still would have been even worse.
This mismatch in time makes it hard to talk to someone who is in the middle of it right now. The idea that all this will make sense one day comes from where you stand later on. For the other person it is a claim about a place they cannot see. Sometimes it even sounds like a demand to be grateful already.
Besides, there are times from which nothing follows. They simply stop. If you see some things more clearly afterwards, that may have less to do with what you were shown along the way than with finally having the strength to look at all.
At the end there is often no insight. You notice things again that were there the whole time, and you can't say whether they have changed.
