What goes up

It's funny how sometimes our experiences can parallel each other's in unexpected ways. For example, recently I've been having a hard time accepting how okay I am given all the major change in my life in the past few months. I find myself thinking, "Am I really fine? Or am I suppressing something that I'm not aware of and it's just going to come crashing down on me at some point?" My good friend Erin has reassured me that it's entirely possible that I am just fine and that things could just be working out as I hope. It's difficult not to be skeptical and just to enjoy this time of growth and happiness, but I think she's right - why not be optimistic?

Meanwhile, Erin has also made a big life change, moving from Chicago to Phoenix and adapting to a new job and social scene. And so far things are going so well that she's now also wondering if she's really going to get off so easily. And so I thought I should remind her of her own wise words, which basically boil down to a nice mantra: "Why not?" Why can't something just go well?

I wish it were easy to live with that sort of optimism. Nobody likes catastrophic surprises, so we try to anticipate and brace ourselves for them, but in doing so at times we hinder our ability to enjoy the good in life right now. It's certain that life still has more bad news and challenges in store for us all, but it also has a lot of joy and blessings to give us, and that's reason to be thankful and have hope.