We are a family that believes you can balance the light and the dark.
Joy and grief.
Happy times and challenging times.
Sunshine and Storms.
What’s key though, is how you react during those difficult times.
When you are faced with a challenging time, do you sit down? Complain? When a storm comes, do you spend your time bemoaning the fact that you don’t have an umbrella? Do you spend all of your time wishing things were different, blaming others for your problems, and expecting someone else to save you? Do you lash out at others who plan ahead and have an umbrella? Do you spend all of your energy in fighting against reality? Do you whine about how the storm is going to affect YOUR commute to work, YOUR time, and YOUR life?
Or, do you look up at the sky and acknowledge it’s raining. Realize that you have absolutely no control over the fact that it’s raining. Do you accept that life brings storms and that some of them might be little rain showers and other ones will be major Category 5 hurricanes? Do you find ways to find the rainbows in those storms? Do you find ways to be grateful for the rain boots that you do have? Do you think of ways to get yourself out of the storms path? Do you share your umbrella with your neighbor because they need it more than you do? Do you have patience because you know that every storm eventually runs out of steam? Are you the lighthouse during the storm? Shining your light so others can find their way to safety?
Your best self? It doesn’t come out during those joyful happy times. Your best self shows up during those challenging hard times. It comes out during the midst of heart ache and hardship–because that’s when we are GROWING. That’s when your true grit and substance is revealed. That’s where you find the person that you truly were meant to be. It’s in those hard times that we become resourceful. We fight. We do things and take on tasks that we once deemed beneath us. We think outside the box. We work twice as hard and twice as long. We do things that we thought were impossible before. We get creative. We collaborate. We pick up the sword and save our selves. We make moves–because at that point in time, anywhere is better than staying stuck in the darkness.
Persevering through a storm, is an opportunity for you to give hope and perspective to others who think that they can’t survive it. Even more so if YOU are the one that thinks its impossible to survive it. And when the storm passes, and the quiet returns, we realize…we could have never become who we are today without the struggles of our past.
No Comments