“You have no idea what can and will be, all you know is what’s directly in front of you. That may be beautiful right now, but that could change tomorrow.”
Disclaimer
Today’s post is a therapy session. If that’s not for you, then feel free to close your browser. If it is, then I welcome you to join me on this journey. We don’t always have good days, but every day is one closer to a good one.
You’ll also see that this article’s thumbnail is written in analogue, because my iPad and Apple Pencil have finally reached their end of the line with me. But, broken tools don’t always have to mean broken results, so I found another way to do what I needed to for now.
Down the rabbit hole we go
Whether we like thinking about it or not, life happens fast. We don’t always have time to react in the ways we want, in fact, we rarely do that even with enough time to react.
Sometimes we like to think we’re in a romantic novel where everything works out. Where the characters are all perfect and we don’t even have to try to be part of the story, where the story happens around us and we’re in harmony with it.
Bullshit.
Thinking like this only gets you in trouble, because when (not if) the penny drops, you’re going to be shaken to your bones. And you have no idea how well they are going to handle until they’re under that kind of pressure.
I’m no advocate for cynicism, but I’m also no advocate for blind optimism. Realism is more accurate, the only tricky part about that is being able to discern what’s real and what shouldn’t be. And what’s the only way to really do that? Keep your damn eyes open.
When you see the accident on the side of the road on your way to work, don’t say, “that’ll never happen to me,” because it can. When you see the beggar at the stop-light, don’t think, “I could never live like that,” because you could.
You have no idea what can and will be, all you know is what’s directly in front of you. That may be beautiful right now, but that could change tomorrow.
I know you might be thinking, “Jesus, Zach, what happened?” The answer to that, my friend, is not a simple one. Shit has gotten real and if there’s one thing I’m learning very quickly, it’s that life happens fast; and you don’t always get a chance to prepare for it.
All one can really do in times like these is to look at the current problem and deal with that before moving onto the next. Juggling is often a luxury.
If you’re in a good place right now, that’s amazing. Remember to be grateful for that. And if you’re not in a great place, know that it get’s better, one day at a time. Maybe it doesn’t feel like that, and maybe I’m trying to convince myself, but that’s what I’m going to believe moving into today and the one after that.
Either way, tomorrow is a new day. And every day is one day closer to a good one.
