Like a flower through the sidewalk

My friend Heather said something the other day that has stuck with me.  It has been rolling around inside of my soul and hasn't let go.

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“Hope is beautiful because it happens in the midst of pain. 

In the absence of pain, hope has little meaning.” 

 Her saying this and me hearing this it was a God-thing if I've ever seen one.  They are words that my spirit inherently knows, but lately I've been struggling to remember.  It's at these times that I need to remember them the most and they are so true...it's only during the tough times that hope has the most meaning.

Just like it's only during the tough times that someone really sees what their true character is.  It's easy to be good when life is good...but how do you treat people when the going gets rough?  And it's easy to be hopeful when life is rocking...but how much hope do you have when every day life seems to suck more and more.  Do you give up?  Do you lie down and die?  Or do you persevere?  When it's time to open your eyes and your natural instinct is to scrunch your face up and shut the world out, do you say to yourself, "No.  It's bound to get better.  God promised he would take care of me.  Lets do this."

I'm grateful for my friends.  And family.  For my kids and my job.  I'm grateful for the experiences I've had and for the loves that have found me in my life....and even the loves that have left me.  I'm grateful for the wisdom that I've earned and for the small amounts of innocence that I still have.  I'm grateful that I can still smile, still appreciate the beauty in a flower, still lay my soul open in a page full of words.  I'm grateful that I can live life not caring at all what people think of me and yet care way too much.  Life is good.  Even when it's not.  Because it is still life and I still know that tomorrow will find me slightly more healed than yesterday did.  I live to love and forgive and evolve and do better.  Some people won't make that whole journey with me, and some people will still be here at the end no matter what horrible things I do or how many holes I crawl into and hide along the way.

Like a flower that grows through a crack in the sidewalk, I always manage to find hope springing up.  And I'm grateful for that too.