Rare is the person who hears and heeds the call Home unless one has first been rocked by losses and failures.

Yet too often, and too quickly, losses and failures can cement the obstinate sense of pride of the sufferer. Presented with loss and failure, the proud one may try harder, may try to be more, do more, have more, become more.

“What lies are you telling yourself?” the Advaita teacher Stephen Wolinsky would have us ask ourselves. The great lie is that the lie of pride: that I, on my own, can do it.

In the face of loss and failure, the blossoming-open mystic realizes, “I am not whole, and I cannot do it.” The first: a truth. The second: humility.

And humility finds its true companions in trust and wonderment. All these point in the direction of the Great Mystery, the Great Unknown.

Loss and failure are how the divine lovingly, compassionately, and, yes, forcefully calls the newborn mystic Home.