What the Heck is Going On?

I saw this on my morning walk the other day and just
stood there, completely mesmerized.  What a great
reminder that in darkness, there's always, always light. 

I was going to tell you a story about my 6am morning walk, where I was worrying about 457 legitimately worrisome things, when all of a sudden I felt something super sticky splat on my right ear, which turned out to be not bird poop, but something worse: tree sap (tree sap?!) from a pine tree I was walking under (did you know sap just, like, falls from trees?!) which has never happened to me before in the history of my life, and it took me a good HOUR to scrub the unbelievably sticky crap off my ear AND out of my hair because, guess what, friends, soap doesn’t do P. Diddy squat except create an exceptionally sticky paste, so I had to Google how to remove tree sap from your skin and hair and who knew but apparently the answer is cooking oil, so I frantically searched my kitchen cupboards for the best smelling cooking oil I could find, and now the tree sap is thankfully gone but I smell like a Tuscan olive oil-basted christmas tree as I make my way to a business lunch.

I guess I needed to get that off my chest.

Clearly, there’s a lot going on in my head.  And no wonder- there’s a lot going on in the world.  That’s why, apart from my little tree sap story, I had a hard time sharing something light and fluffy. 

There’s a lot of sad and scary stuff happening.  Plane crashes, genocide, hurricanes, suicide. 

A friend shared with me that’s she’s just angry.  I get it, because I’m confused, upset, worried.  

The world can be depressing.

So one option is to hide myself from the world, and hole up in my apartment where it’s clean and safe and quiet.  I don’t have to shower, I can lay around in my bathrobe, work from my couch, order a large Dominos Pizza. (Not that I’ve ever done that.  This is purely hypothetical).

But that’s not life.

I wish I had answers.  But I don’t.

So instead, I’m trying to see this as an opportunity. 

To love.

To be kind.

To lend a hand to a stranger.

To listen when a friend needs to talk. 

To be peaceful amidst chaos.

To be light when the world is dark.

To see the good when it’s so easy to see the bad.

To not lose hope.

I choose to combat the craziness- with love, light and hope.  I invite you to join me.   

But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.  -Isaiah 40:31

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness. - Desmond Tutu

Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear.  If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today. - Thich Nhat Hanh