Cenedra Hogan

A Most Unconventional Guru. Content Warning.

Some would say he is a man with no hope, others may turn and walk away when they see him in the street. Many still harbour fond memories of a friend they once knew, a friend that fought life’s most difficult battles and yet could not fight the desire to be numbed from it all. A man that was lost to those who loved him most, in efforts to escape himself. Although the tone of this essay may seem a little grim, please do not take it as a story of despair and delusion. My father is much more than that. He is a man of many mistakes, yet not one of them passed by without its lessons. Lessons, that he was sure to pass on to his children. He showed us what it means to be human, by walking the hard path one bare foot at a time, pulling each piece of glass and stone out of his soles, and showing us the scars left behind. I watch as others walk the same path, yet out of shame, they keep their bloody soles hidden. The fact of the matter is, the reason my dad’s lessons sunk in so deep, is because of the blunt force reality of their execution. No lesson was sugar coated, most of the time they were excruciating to learn, yet you could always rely on them being centred in absolute truth. I believe there is not enough of that in our world today. Truth seems to always be hidden in shame, and as a result we are all living in distorted, false realities. What a rare and valuable teacher I had, to have taught me to see this life for what it really is.