Thank God for a new day (Hope in the darkness)

So, so so so so so!!! I had a bit of an off day yesterday, to say the least. It seems that those days sometimes follow amazing days, and this was no exception. Thursday was an amazing day for me. I was creative, inspired, happy. I felt like a million and one bucks.. But then there was Friday.. Oh Friday.. Friday's have always been hard days for me. I think it's because I always feel pressure to do something exceedingly fun, party or something. Now that I am working at quitting drinking Friday's are even harder. So what was so bad about yesterday?

I didn't want to do anything or see anyone. I stayed in my bedroom mostly. I had this feeling of pointlessness that I couldn't shake. I know it's a lie but it still held me down the whole day. I was anxious and incapable of doing anything it seemed and surrounded by darkness.

I guess we all have bad days and that is something we can't really change but it's how we deal and move on that makes us who we are and shows our character.

Alfred to Bruce Wayne: Why do we fall, sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.

Leave it up to Alfred to sum it all up.. It's an interesting way to look at it. Why do we have bad days? Why do we screw up? why do we fall? So we can learn to show ourselves and others who we really are. So we can conquer our weaknesses. So we can overcome things. Be strong, smart, ground breaking, world changing. "Learn", being a key word in this. It's so important to stay humble and realize we always have a lot to learn.

I said I was going to post poems I wrote and now seems appropriate for this one. I wrote it quite a while ago but it is also part of the inspiration for my blog title.

If the world is round, than I am a square
If there's one thing I've found, it's that life isn't fair
If a day went by and a smile could remain
If all of my efforts weren't so pointless and in vein
But I can't just hide or close my eyes
with each new day the sun will rise
tomorrow gives a whole new try
and with it is my hope.

As you can see a major theme in this poem is sadness and the hardships of everyday. I was realizing, I guess when writing the poem that there was a lot of negativity I would always have to face. In the beginning wishing that I didn't have to face these things and that I could just keep my smile. It's normal to want to be happy, to dislike suffering but it's important that we don't just hide or run from the hard times because there is still hope. Hope for tomorrow is a big one because in some ways it's a chance or at least a feeling that we can start fresh.

Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk said simply,

"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."

It is simple but hard to remember or put into practice. If we look at it metaphorically with hope being light and darkness being hopelessness it can help to illustrate a truth.

Light only needs a tiny pinhole to shine through and illuminate a whole room. Darkness can not exist where light is but the opposite isn't true. You can not turn on a dark, you can only take away the light. Once the light shows up the dark runs, hides, disappears. Hope is a beautiful thing because if we just let it enter our minds a little, it can drive away the hopelessness. Like light it just needs a tiny opening to really change our way of thinking.

I know sometimes when I am feeling bad, sad or unrad I almost seem to run from hope. It's a strange thing but it's almost like I want to feel that way. Like the sadness not only makes us sad but convinces our brains that we need to be sad.

WE DON'T!

So we have a bad day, in that moment we feel like we want to give up. But a bad day is just like a bump in a road when getting to a destination. They ultimately won't stop us from getting there but they might just make us say holy baloney on the way.

In fact!! Romans 8:28 says

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

So not only will it not stop us from getting to our destination, it can also be a good thing, a bad day can be part of a greater purpose. We know hope only needs a little tiny pin point hole to illuminate truth, like realizing things will work together for an overall good. A good that we can't always see when we miss the big picture of God's plan.

A bad day can be good because it helps us relate to others when they have bad days, It can help us appreciate the good days, it can give us time to reflect and maybe realize changes we need to make or places in our lives where we need healing, it can force us to look at the big picture and ask God for help, it shows us the true beauty and truth of HOPE. Just like panic attacks in my "I just don't feel right" blog post, we need to show love to bad days and they will loose a lot of their power.

We can and will overcome bad days, be better for it, have beautiful HOPE and LOVE for everything that happens in our lives and in the end live for great purpose!