Difficult times bring so many difficult emotions. Those emotions swell within you, threatening to swallow you alive. You can’t sleep. You can’t focus at work. You find yourself uttering nonsense. You walk around town like a zombie. You reach out to the sky, desperately hoping someone will answer. Will erase your sorrow, and take away the difficulty. Make everything how it used to be. You cry and scream. You lie awake at dawn.
You reach out to others.
However, in times of difficulty, it seems a lot of people tend to draw away from you. Faced with the sorrow in your eyes, they might become afraid or might get angry. They cannot deal with their own emotions, or feel powerless to help you, so they draw away. When you need people in your life the most, a lot of them move away and leave you alone.
But, not all of them. It is those few, wonderful people in my life that I wish to celebrate today. The ones who have seen me crying and have stopped to ask me how I am doing. The ones who call me to ask me how I am. The ones who remind me that, in their eyes, I am beautiful, wonderful, unique, and amazing. The ones who share their life stories and personal injuries so I may take heart. I celebrate the ones who buy me coffee so I may smile. The ones who send me messages throughout the day, out of the blue, so I may not feel alone. The ones who chat with me long distance from England and America, or between breaks in their jobs here in Australia, to cheer me on as I wait in clinics, hospitals, or lie awake at night. The ones who listen. The ones who offer solutions, herbal teas, and jokes. The ones who harbor so much faith, it cannot help but infuse me.
I am grateful. I know we all live difficult, complex lives. We are all caught in the middle of hardships. Most of us struggle to pay the rent, and we all carry a little bit of sorrow in our shoes. Taking the time to care for someone else is demanding, draining, and hard. That makes the gesture of those people that care even more wonderful and touching.
To everyone who has been there for me, in one way or another, during the difficult times I am living: thank you.
Thank you.
