I have recently seen the movie Maleficent. The movie tells the story of a young witch named Maleficent who lives in the Moors realm and has huge wings. She falls in love with Stefan, a young man she met in the realm, a place full of magical creatures, where peace and kindness rule. Stefan comes from Earth, a place ruled by selfishness and malice. Stefan gives her something that makes her fall asleep and then cuts her wings, all in pursuit of the king’s daughter and the succession to the throne.
Maleficent curses Stefan’s daughter – she will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and fall into a deep sleep from which she will never awaken, unless kissed by her true love. In time, Maleficent understands that the girl is the only chance to bring balance between the two worlds and to gain her wings back, which does happen eventually.
Vladimir Nabokov, during the Russian Revolution continued to write his poems, even if shots were fired around him and he could witness bloody fights from his window.
A friend of mine told me about a great love of hers that ended abruptly. Her partner decided to end their relationship in a moment when they were planning their future. She suffered for a long time, she still does (I believe there are wounds that never heal, but we manage to live with them). She sublimated her suffering by creating something: she wrote a book, started some initiatives that contribute to education, to the creation of better people.
Suffering can be a frame that pushes us towards creativity. However, it can also bring us down, crush us, if we let go of ourselves. The easiest thing to do is to abandon the fight, to give up on ourselves. The hardest thing is to imagine that we are our own puppeteer, that we pull the strings and will not let ourselves fall; or even if we happen to fall, we get up quickly.
Any relationship that our partner decides to end, feels like having our wings cut. For a while it is difficult to walk without them, to gain our strength back.