Dearest Darling Friends

 

My client Dheeraj Saxena (name changed) asked if I could drop him home and I gladly said ‘yes’.

 

On the way, Dheeraj shared, it was his wedding anniversary.

 

I heartily congratulated him and he thanked me in a voice soaked with sadness.

 

An awkward silence enveloped us in the car.

 

Then, he told me something that I still haven’t forgotten.

 

Dheeraj – “Every night, I sit in my parked car outside my house for five extra minutes. Those five minutes feel easier than the life waiting inside.”

 

He wasn’t being dramatic.

He was being honest.

 

I realised something about struggle that we rarely admit out loud.

 

Sometimes life doesn’t hit you with storms.

Sometimes it dims off the lights.

 

No thunder.

No warning.

Just darkness.

 

A darkness so thick that you can’t tell whether you are standing, falling, or frozen in place.

 

We reached his home. We sat silently in the car for a few minutes that felt like a long silence.

 

Before getting down, looking straight ahead he said, “You are my Business Coach. Tell me something on how to face that darkness that waits for me inside my home.”

 

His voice clearly told me he was not seeking sympathy. He was genuinely seeking my advice.

 

I said – “If you can stare down the darkness of reality and ‘believe’ you will eventually climb out of it, you become invincible.”

 

He got down thoughtfully, collected his Mokobara laptop bag from the back seat, waved me bye and I drove off.

 

A couple of hours later, he sent a message.

 

“Thank you for your advice.

Darkness isn’t the enemy.

Darkness is the training ground.”

 

“It challenges my faith the way a gym session challenges my muscles.

 

It tests my patience the way a long night tests a lone candle.”

 

“Your message has forced me to meet that version of me that doesn’t need applause, nor reassurance, nor guarantees”.

 

“It only needs courage.”

“So, thank you once again”.

 

His message made me ponder into the relationship between struggle and superpowers.

 

Isn’t struggle a strange teacher?

 

– It teaches by taking things away.

– It sharpens by overwhelming.

– It strengthens by making us feel weak.

 

In these struggles, there is a quiet rebellion inside every story of bouncing back. It is the ability to whisper…

 

“I don’t know when… but I will rise again.”

“I don’t know how… but I will rise again.”

 

That whisper is our superpower.

 

Every climber knows…

 

You don’t conquer the mountain.

 

You conquer the voice that keeps telling you to turn back.

 

Every seed knows:

It must trust the darkness long before it ever sees the sun.

 

Every dawn knows:

It becomes beautiful only after surviving the longest hour of the night.

 

So, if you’re reading this and you are in your own version of darkness—a tough year, a loss, a setback, a silent battle you carry in your heart, please hear this.

 

Have the faith to keep going anyway.

 

Not because the path is clear.

 

But because you are stronger than whatever is standing in front of you.

 

And one day, when you climb out, and you will, you will look back at this phase as the moment your invincibility began.

 

If this message found you at the right time, drop a ’Will rise again’ in the comments.

 

You never know who needs to see your courage today.