After the Squeeze

Torchwood was started as a group blog for a women's leadership team. This post is by Susan:

The squeeze is a force to be reckoned with, to be sure. But the after-effect isn't depletion, it's stretching, magnification, super-saturation. It's an out-of-bounds explosion. If you see it as such, it is a precious opportunity.

Kahlil Gibran says this in The Prophet:

"Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter
rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being,
the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that hold your wine the
very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit,
the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart
and you shall find it is only that which
has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart,
and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for
that which has been your delight.
Some of you say, 'Joy is greater than sorrow,'
and others say, 'Nay, sorrow is the greater.'
But I say unto you, they are inseparable.
Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your
board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.
Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.
Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.
When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver,
needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall."

Yes, the good stuff is in you ready to be released, and for some of us the big squeeze is more painful than for others. The better the press, the better the mash. First time through it's golden - extra virgin. Then we can go 'round a few more times, to get every drop of insight.

And at the end we have surely taken a new shape. Ready for the next pressing. After all, this is normal.