Life is sown thickly with thorns 
and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. 
The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, 
the greater is their power to harm us.

Voltaire

Into every life there comes a time when things don't seem to be working out according to even the most carefully thought out plans!

Tragedy strikes.  

We lose someone close to us. 

Life doesn't seem fair.

We suffer great misfortune.

I know you've heard someone say,  "Time  is a great healer," or "This, too, shall pass," or, one I heard again just the other day, "Well, the only way to go now is up!"

There's a reason those sayings have been around for years. They are, in many ways, true!

I'm not saying that you should never allow time to grieve or to deal with hurtful issues.  And, I'm a strong advocate of seeking help from a professional counselor or someone in your faith family. 

However, I do know from experience that when things are really tough, the most resilient people seem to find an inner strength from relying on their family, friends and their faith to keep living life.

One of my favorite scenes from the animated feature film Finding Nemo is when Dory says to Marlin, who is ready to give it up and quit,  "Hey Mr. Grumpy Gills... When life gets you down do you wanna know what you gotta do?" 

Marlin replies,  "I don't WANNA KNOW what you gotta do." 

Even so, Dory begins to chant and sing: "Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. What do we do? We swim, swim!" 

In frustration,  Marlin shouts back at her: "Dory, NO SINGING!" 

Dory replies, "Ha, ha, ha, ha, ho. I love to swim!  When you want to swim you want to swim!" 

Then, in an angry tone of voice, Marlin shouts, "See I'm gonna get stuck now with that song... Now it's in MY head!" 

Dory apologizes and swims on....Then Marlin follows her.

As he keeps swimming he finds himself moving closer to finding his beloved Nemo.  He focuses on the good things left in his life and on accomplishing the goal of reuniting his family!

His life was sown thickly with "thorns" -- from scary sharks and stinging jellyfish to a seemingly insurmountable distance to swim.  But, as he kept moving, he found that the scary things were left behind and the distance was covered!

My challenge to you is this:  If things are getting you down and it seems there's no way to go but up....look up!

Find  the good things ahead of you and focus your attention there.  

Then....just keep swimming!!

Blessings!

Sharon