If we had a perch above and beyond, we would see an entirely different world, a world in which each thing is propelled continuously upward.

We would see how every instance that appears to us as failure is a crucial step towards a much higher place.

How the pain of tearing ourselves away from our past is the gift of true transcendence.

How, one day, with one small turn, an entire lifetime will be repaired and redeemed.

Indeed, this wounded soldier will be all the more precious for having taken the longer road—for every soul is destined to return home.

As the acorns rot in the dark soil so they may grow to mighty oaks, as the caterpillars abandon all form within their cocoons to emerge as magnificent butterflies—all the truly great things in our world unfold only in those places where no one cares to look, and no one wants to be.

After your time on this earth, your soul will rise to that perch above, and yet higher. And then it will return here again, as all the souls will return to reap their harvest.

Then you will see. There is no failure in G‑d’s world. Not a moment of it.

Based on 19 Iyar, 5712.