We Saunter On

After another harrowing week brought on by people with equal amounts of ego and free time on their hands, things are finally settling down.  Of course, I'm somewhat waiting for the next sling of arrows since they seem to back off for a few days, and then like playground bullies building up their courage, they strike again.  It's a tightrope walk between keeping my guard up and still enjoying life.  Because the only way they really win is by taking my joy and my peace.  Believe me when I say, they are trying.

One thing I have avoided during this whole nightmarish month is shielding my children from it all.  As parents, we have included them in regular family meetings to discuss the situation as it unfolds, both the attacks and our plans to deal with them.  We talk together, we pray together, we grieve together, and we face them together.  In this way, I hope we are preparing them for real life because real life means that sometimes you're going along, minding your business, trying your very best, and then something bad happens.  It's not fate or karma, it's just part of life.  These times come, we fight them or endure them, and then they pass.

The very best things that I have found to help me weather storms like this are:  prayer, keeping family close, laughing with friends, and looking back on past trials to see how we came through them just as we will come through this, and most importantly remembering that life is comprised of ease and adversity.  It's easy to forget in the middle of one or the other that they won't last; rather one gives way to the other in a constant dance between joy and sorrow.

While you may not, and perhaps should not, accept each trial with passivity, there is certainly a time to fight back, you should accept that they will happen.  Rest during the good times, enjoy that time, and prepare.  Another storm will come and when it does, you face it with a secret smile, knowing that as much as nasty people roar and rage, it's all just noise. No matter what the world may try to take from you, if you can keep your peace and joy, you haven't really lost anything.

No matter what you're going through, this too shall pass, my friends.  So, chin up, shoulders back, saunter on.