As I drove in to work this morning, several sights caught my attention. I saw a mother walking her son out to a pickup van for disabled students. He must have been in his mid-teens, and he had some sort of physical disability that clearly gave him difficulty in walking and carrying himself with an even gait. It made me burst into tears immediately, as I imagined for a moment the struggles they both have probably experienced in their lives. Then I saw a couple bitterly fighting in their car. I've been a part of that couple, and I know how it feels to hear harsh and cruel words from someone you love, who you thought loved you enough not to cross certain lines. I saw a woman driving alone, sobbing.
It was a fast-paced series of reminders (my commute to work is only about 4 minutes) that there are so many hurting in our world, and that sometimes just making it to your school or job each morning can be a battle, a trial...that each of us has our own sources of pain and joy that the rest of the world may not realize or take into account as they deal with us in whatever fashion they might choose on that given day.
Some would say I've experienced a lot of heartache, stress, and bad luck in my life. That would be fair to say. But I'm a lucky girl. The experiences I've had have made me stronger, wiser, more resilient, and more grateful for the myriad blessings that surround me even on my weakest, most hopeless day. I think that, overall, joy is a choice. Each of us must deal with obstacles, temptations, and unfortunate circumstances. But we get to choose how we react to them too.
There is a saying about how if we all threw our problems into a big pile, we'd each probably take back our own once we saw everyone else's burdens and struggles. I know I'd take mine back. And hopefully there will always be days when I try to share someone else's too, just to ease their load a bit.
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