The Intersection of Beauty and Despair

It was a captivating sight. 

Our cruise ship slowly glided beneath Golden Gate Bridge on approach to San Francisco. I stood on our cabin balcony taking in magnificence of it. The massive size. The soaring architecture. The marvel of engineering. 

Then I saw them. Wide nets ran the length of the bridge on both sides. I was confused for a moment before it hit me—they were to catch people attempting to jump from the bridge and end their lives. 

The juxtaposition was jarring. A stirring monument boasting a concession to grim reality. An intersection of beauty and despair.

The nets on the Golden Gate Bridge serve as an apt symbol of life. How often in my own experience have beauty and despair met? The passing of my mother. My grown kids leaving home. Ending a much-loved career. Saying goodbye to a dear friend. Some of my most poignant moments were a melding of the bitter and the sweet.

I tend to avoid those intersections when I can. The starkness of the contrast makes me uncomfortable. But when they inevitably come, I’ve learned to lean in. Embrace the contradiction. The intensity. The whirl of emotions. Because it’s in this crucible that personal growth flourishes. The false fronts I’ve fashioned around my True Self are stripped away. The process is like its catalyst, both healing and painful.

When you come to the intersection of beauty and despair in your life, stand fast. Meet the moment with head high and heart open. Hold the opposing forces close. Embrace the lessons these liminal spaces have to give. If you do, you’ll know a deeper life, and you’ll take another step toward Becoming Yourself.