The Other Side

It's amazing how quickly life can steal your joy. It can bring great pleasures you can't help but revel in, and then it can steal it away in the blink of an eye. As the old saying goes, "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade," but what happens when life goes ahead and spoils the lemonade with a gallon of gasoline?

I also find it fascinating how quickly things can turn. One minute you're celebrating and engagement or a new job, the next you're mourning the loss of all joy and putting all the energy you have towards just getting out of bed in the morning.

The thing is, there is often no good answer as to why things change so quickly. Or why they change at all. Sure there are the obvious answers...losing someone you love, getting let go from a job that's your only source of income, balancing a delicate friendship or breaking up with the person you thought was "the one." But more often than not, the tough seasons of life come out of nowhere with no real good reason and no great way of getting out of it.

Life takes time. As I get older I see this more and more. Even though time flies, somehow the days still manage to feel like weeks and the weeks like years. There is nothing longer than a bad day, and when those days start piling up, all of the sudden you feel stuck. Totally, utterly, stuck. With no end in sight, and the weight of the world on your shoulders.

I hate that it takes so long to get through these seasons. I hate that the "good" seasons fly by quicker than you can savor the moments.

I've been so plagued by bad days in the last few year's that I can't help but feel like the good days are fleeting...on the verge of being guillotined faster than King Henry VIII could find a new wife. It's a terrible way to live life and a mentality I'm trying to change.

It's a weird thing being on the other side...the good side I mean. Now that my good days finally outnumber the bad, I see myself in the place I once saw everyone else. Is it sad that it feels genuinely weird to be happy? Yes, probably a little sad, but a good thing nonetheless and a part of life everyone probably experiences at one point or another, but doesn't necessarily talk about.

One thing I can appreciate (I use this term loosely) about going through difficult seasons is that they prepare me for going through similar seasons with others around me. On my most difficult days I mostly just wanted someone to hear me out, let me cry, and validate my frustrations as best as possible. Sure, encouragement is a great thing and holds high value, but that's honestly the last thing I want to hear when I am plain ol' pissed at life. So, now, as I see others through difficult seasons, the least I can do is listen to a friend when she just needs to vent, console her when she cries, and be at least a little pissed at life if it makes her feel better. Because this is true friendship...meeting others exactly where they are at, engaging in their story, and doing life together.