This Side of the Creek

I can’t tell you how many years I spent walking around in a bubble made of my own “stuff.” I felt trapped no matter which direction I turned and I remember many moments when I asked, “What is the point in all of this?” I saw nothing in my future and too much in my past. I was going through life’s motions while not really living at all. Yes, I’ve been there, too.

I write this post not to plead with those who may feel that way at this time in their lives, but more to remind us all that we’re not alone. Hope can be restored. Believe me. Up until the past year or so I was one who thought I was a lost cause, a hopeless case, and a bag of damaged goods. However, when I began to change my thinking, which then helped me to change my feelings and actions, I began to see things happening in my life. My bubble burst, but in a good way, and suddenly I was empowered.

The darkness is indeed dark and the light may not shine as brightly as we wish when we first start to see it. One of the most challenging things can be having the patience to move through the darkness into the light that is the rest of our lives. I tell myself on a continual basis, “Patience is a virtue,” and “Be still and know that I am God.” These two things remind me that I can’t have it all right now just because I want it all right now. Change takes time and finding balance, structure, and peace also takes time.

But it can happen. Even when we feel as if we can’t move another step, when we feel stuck in a bubble or inside a tornado of a life, or when we simply don’t know which direction we need to go, there is hope. There is hope that the next moment will come and in that moment we have choices that we can make — big or small — we have choices. Simply attempting something off the beaten path of our lives in an attempt to change our situations can make a major difference.

I don’t want to be one to tell anyone else how to live their lives. That’s not my goal. I guess it is my wish, however, that we can combat the feeling of hopelessness and take small steps — together — to have a life filled with more light and less darkness.