“And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in” – Haruki Murakami

This epilogue will be quote heavy. These men describe these things we feel on this journey through life far better than I could ever articulate. Sentences so dense and meaningful, often simplistic at first but to those that know, these words carry the greatest of profoundness. There are an abundance of very meaningful quotes that retrospectively describe this journey, and probably many of them don’t ring true until you have come to where we are now. There are so many great pieces I would like to include but seek them out yourself, you will very quickly find what is most meaningful or speaks loudest to you. I think this is one of those times where too many words would be overdoing it.

It is very hard to describe it to someone who has not travelled this road. The pain and inner turbulence has been relieved now. An internal fire that burned so hot that it left the deepest of scars. This great inner storm has now burnt itself out. Inner peace prevails now. The deepest of scars remain but they no longer define you. Jung said “I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.”

You must continue to move forward, every day is a new day. Sameness cannot touch and make real, you must create or die.  “Each day of not writing, of comfort, of being that which he despised, dulled his ability and softened his will to work so that, finally, he did no work at all.” Ernest Hemingway.

Reach out to others who may be struggling on their journey. Enlighten those who reach out to you, even if it’s only on small scale. Often those on this journey do not need to be shown the way; they need to find their own way as you know. Sometimes these people you encounter just need to know they are not alone in embracing their darkness, and know to not be embarrassed by it. Jung said ”One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light but by making the darkness conscious”. Aim to be the type of person you would have liked to have been able to reach out to when you travelled this road.

I would be lying if I said I knew how to describe exactly what it is like to come out the other side of this, frankly I still do not know, but it is important to roll with it and keep going. You will know when it happens though, you will know when the inner storm is over and the sun comes up, it will be the brightest, freshest morning you have ever experienced.  I don’t think there is anything to be gained in questioning it all right now, the answers will come when the ashes cool some more. You will continue to learn and grow.

The last quote and the most apposite is more than a quote but I fail to see anything more fitting than this in which to end this series…

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

• William Ernest Henley.

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