"When halfway through the journey of our life I found that I was in a gloomy wood because the path which led aright was lost. And ah, how hard it is to say just what this wild and rough and stubborn woodland was, the very thought of which renews my fear! So bitter ‘tis, that death is little worse; but of the good to treat which there I found, I ’ll speak of what I else discovered there." – Dante Alighieri, Opening sentence of Canto 1, The Inferno"I cannot well repeat how there I entered, so full was I of slumber at the moment In which I had abandoned the true way, but after I had reached a mountain’s foot, at that point where the valley terminated, which had with consternation pierced my heart"I first encountered these words in 2021, after I quit for the second time in as many years and finally allowed the breakdown that I knew had to happen if I was going to climb out of the pit of despair and suicidal ideation I was in. The words were so viscerally descriptive and accurate that I am convinced The Inferno appears to be Dante Alighieri’s way of processing and reporting—with the employ of prose and metaphors—the occurrence of a debilitating midlife existential crisis. Commentaries and opinion pieces on The Inferno have drawn connections to the political, religious, and philosophical conflicts and issues in his day as ways to make meaning of the rich symbolism he depicts. Maybe because I came across his words in the middle of my own internal hell, I will posit that he may have been writing about his existential crisis or been a close firsthand observer to such a crisis occurring with a close friend or family member. I haven’t researched enough to uncover this, but I have yet to find language so exact, so suitable as Signor Alighieri’s in describing the feeling of sleepwalking through life until suddenly being lost and unmoored in the middle of one’s own life. When I read those words in 2021, I could relate to becoming lost in the middle of a life that no longer made any sense. I was two years into swinging between numbness, rage, and fear. All of my typical coping strategies had failed or been taken away by COVID-19 restrictions, leading to intense feelings of uselessness, stripping one of any hope for the future.“halfway through the journey of our life I found that I was in a gloomy wood, because the path which led aright was lost”I noted that was exactly how I felt. I came across these words in the thick of my wild, rough, stubborn woodland, which I had unintentionally stumbled into. I felt lost, yet it seemed I would have to go through this unyielding, dangerous forest completely alone and with only a thin sliver of hope that I might make it through the pain somehow and emerge alive. Though this feeling took full bloom in 2019, in 2020, at the age of 36, I had to admit that while I may have been late by society’s standards to many symbols of adulthood, I was certainly early to a midlife crisis. And I fought it with my strength and struggled on, going through the motions of life and career all through 2020, until I quit again in 2021 to turn and face my inner turmoil and allow the breakdown. My own woodland was my mind, which had become my worst enemy—hijacked by a self-hating, merciless, and unrelenting inner critic, spewing poison that ground it to a complete halt and filled it with constant thoughts of self-annihilation. “but of the good to treat which there I found, I ’ll speak of what I else discovered there.” It seemed that our thirteenth-century Florentine (or maybe it was his friend or family member) emerged from the dark and twisted woodland. That he did so after facing his troubles. That he emerged wiser and became healed enough to decide to recount his travails and foibles for the benefit of anyone else who would also, in the middle of their lives, suddenly find themselves in a strange, cold, and punishing woodland.This is the reason why Today’s Kind Reminder exists.I have also gone through this woodland, discovered ways to pacify my inner tormentors, listen to them, then turn them into friends.Chosen God again as my Lord and kept struggling to yield more of my life to His leading and guidance.Emerging with me from this wilderness experience is the conviction that many others are still in their own deep, dark forests—or may soon enter it—and would benefit from someone pointing them to hope that they will find their own powerful lights at the end of the experience. Part of that yielding is a request that I leave a public record for the encouragement, inspiration, and transformation of others. I have fought this instruction for about 2.5 years (yes, since December 2022).For the sake of retaining the peace I found, I find I can no longer do so.Today’s Kind Reminder is born from my realization that these crises are calls to a deeper, richer, more purposeful life. Sharing my journey on blogs is a desire to reclaim my peace and finally surrender again to the next step of what that life could do for others, if I let it.Turn the mess into a message. To share the truth I discovered—that mental or physical pain and mental anguish can be deeper calls to transformation that have started roaring because all else has failed to get our attention. And someone like me, who has discovered the transforming power of these crises, can help go back to cheer along others who are in their woodlands, so that they may also emerge—alive, refined, and ready for transformation.

Pain can be transformative and lead you to God if you let it

Why today's kind reminder exists

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Why today's kind reminder exists

Why today's kind reminder exists

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