Sweet Sorrow: Battles and Breakthroughs

OK you guys – I am having the worst travel karma this year!! Not sure what is going on but it’s been brutal. Could have something to do with the fact that all of my flights have been on United?! Not blaming them (well, kind of am), just saying they are the common denominator. I am sitting at the airport, going on my 2nd delay of the day; what was originally supposed to be a 5 hour travel day is now turning into another 12 hour travel day. Sigh!

Battle: Airports! Breakthroughs: Time to write my blog post!

I was originally thinking I was going to write the next ‘mini-series’ of Sweet Sorrow on betrayal, but honestly, I just wasn’t really feeling it. Now that I have 3 additional hours to really think/type this out, I realized that writing on betrayal would be forced and not authentic. While I have lots to say about the topic, it just isn’t the time. So as I sit here in my ultra-comfortable airport seat, staring at my computer screen and eating my gluten free crackers (doing a cleanse! Traveling is that much more painful when you can’t eat much of anything), I decided that it is time to wrap up this series for a bit and end it with battles and breakthroughs.

I wanted to write around this topic of Sweet Sorrow, as a way to illustrate that life can just downright suck sometimes (or sometimes a lot of time). The journey can be tiresome, burdensome, difficult, etc. And no one is immune to it! We all have chapters in our lives that are full of battles, and other chapters that are full of breakthroughs. Life is about balancing both and trying to find the breakthroughs during the battles.; trying to find the sweetness in the sorrow. 

I’m not a people person in the sense that I like being around a lot of people all of the time; I am a people person in the sense that I like getting to know people on a much more intimate, quiet, deeper level. The reason for that is because 1. I shut down in large groups and have sensory overload and 2. I love learning about people’s stories and their journeys. We all have one! A story as unique to us as our fingerprints! And more often than not, what draws people into our stories - or what we relate to the most with other people's stories - are their battles, The trials and triumph they went through, most of the time never aware on the surface of what people have gone through in their life.

So what do we do with the cards that are dealt to us? What do we do in moments of hardship, sorrow, betrayal? What I am learning is that we pay attention during the moments we are in battle, that we hunker down for the storm and stay calm. Alternatively, during the moments of breakthroughs we learn to be thankful, to take time to stop and appreciate the moment and to use the breakthrough moments to get us through the battles.

Just some of the flowers along the freeway on my way home from work

I am reminded of this daily right now as I drive around So. Cal. This season has been a wet one! We have had so much rain, all of which has been desperately needed. While traffic has been a nightmare (the stereotypes are true, we can’t drive in the rain), the brightside is that I can now take a shower longer than 3 minutes and not worry that my water company is going to send me a fine for using too much water! The rain has brought some battles of its own; leaking roofs, flooded roads, potholes (EVERYWHERE), etc. But it has also brought life and growth! It looks like Kuaui or Scotland; the hills are so green and dancing with artistic displays of wildflowers everywhere. It has been a few years since mother earth has had some relief and able to show off its beauty. While we have been enjoying years of sunshine and near perfect temperatures, the ground has been hunkering down, trying to get through these seasons of no rain.

It is no secret that there are no flowers without RAIN and SUNSHINE. They need both to grow and evolve into the perfect creations they were destined to become. Our lives are the same. We need the battles and breakthroughs to become the people we are destined to become. But it takes ownership, recognition, stillness, and fortitude to grow into our most authentic self. It takes the ability to be able to learn the lessons during the battles, and to appreciate and rejoice in the breakthroughs. We have to be willing to walk through the difficult times with an open mind, an open heart and open arms – and we have to be purposeful to walk through the happy times with a thoughtful mind, a giving heart, and embracing arms. When we can learn to look at the moments that challenge us, bring us to our knees, or sometimes downright break us – as moments that can be used to help ourselves and others – then it makes seeing the light at the end of the tunnel a little easier.

That is what I have wanted to get across around this topic of sweet sorrow. To try to remember to rejoice in the trials and tribulations of life! It’s those moments, the moments we are getting flooded with rain that will allow us to blossom and bloom in the sunshine. It isn’t easy, this I know. I still struggle with remembering to find the positive in every day battles; so much so that I have a daily gratitude journal I write in every night before going to bed. To help me to find three things a day that I am grateful for, to help train my thoughts to search for the breakthroughs and not just focus on the battles. Sometimes I could write 100 things I’m thankful for, other times the only thing I can come up with is being thankful for my bed.

Sweet sorrow is about remembering to be joyful in the midst of sorrow. It’s a choice how we see the rain. We can choose to see nothing but cold, wet, dreariness – or we can choose to remember that the sun is just on the other side of the clouds, waiting to use the rain to transform us into something amazing. Each of our battles different and unique; just as each of us is as different and unique as all the flowers on this earth.

http://strangesounds.org/2017/03/38california-desert-super-bloom-california-2017-pictures.html

To each of you, I hope that these posts have been able to resonate on some level with you and your life?! That is my purpose, to use my story and my journey to help others along their journey. Life can be freaking difficult, but don’t be defeated. We are in this together!

Wish me luck on the rest of my journey! If my flight is delayed again my next post is going to be about how full of crap I was in saying that we should try to find the good in everything. LOL!

<3,

Kristin

Sweet Sorrow: Hardship

Wasn't exactly sure what to write, or how to craft this post, but I knew I wanted to write around this topic of sweet sorrow. It was something that came up in my bible study and was just really weighing on my heart.

So I am going to kind of do a mini-series on this notion of sweet sorrow, as there are a few areas that I feel are relevant. This first post will be on the topic of dealing with, overcoming, getting through hardship.

Sometimes life creates a much more 'enjoyable' story than we could ever begin to write and these last few weeks have been one for the books!! I don't know about anyone else, but I have just been feeling like I was getting hit by life, from every angle - nothing was going easy. I was getting bogged down with life and my head was just on repeat, playing over everything that was going wrong. It was hard to see the light in the midst of the darkness and the darkness is all I could seem to focus on. 

Then that's when life really decided to play a joke. What was supposed to be a lovely trip to Montana this past weekend, to get away and have a break from life, started off as a chapter out of Lemony Snicket Series of Unfortunate Events. Long story short - flight was delayed 2.5 hours, luggage didn't arrive with our flight, our car was rear-ended (by the way, it was my 3rd car accident in a week), our hotel key didn't work (had to go to the lobby twice, only to find out someone was actually in the room they assigned to us) and then had to wait to get into another room. All of this took place from about 10p - 4a; needless to say my 12 hour venture to Montana was not how I had envisioned it going, but after the few weeks I had been having, I wasn't surprised by what had occurred. In fact, at this point all I could do was laugh at everything going on. I didn't have anything left in me, but to laugh.

On my last day in Montana, I went dog-sledding and couldn't help but be fascinated by the dogs, and the irony of the last few weeks of life. Upon arrival, there were 70+ dogs chained up along the edge of the truck and/or fence. They looked sad and at first, you couldn't help but feel bad for them. Here they were, going to be hooked to a sled and hauling me (and others) around the snow for over hour. Kept thinking of the burden and hardship that they had to go through every day - and then everything changed!! THE MINUTE that the guides started to get everything ready, and the dogs knew it was almost 'go time' - the thoughts of feeling sorry for them vanished. They were SOOO excited! Barking, jumping around, rolling in the snow; so full of eagerness, passion, and enjoyment for what they were about to do (hauling hundreds of pounds, running 7+ miles in snow). If you ask me, that all sounds like what training for my 1/2 marathon feels like, LOL. 

Watching the dogs made me realize that we have two choices in life - get defeated by challenging situations, or embrace them with eagerness (and a smile, or bark :)). I decided to live this year with INTENTION and learning how to LIVE life, not SURVIVE it. These dogs helped me realize that life is always going to present challenges, but it's how we approach them that is truly how we determine whether we live  to the fullest extent, or just get by surviving. God never promised an easy life, but what he promised was to walk along side us during the hardship. A friend to keep us company along the way. 

Just as the dogs have been trained their entire life to run and endure -- I have been trained to withstand and just put one foot in front of the other to get to the next day. However, unlike the dogs, I have forgotten how to jump, roll in the snow and be eager to embrace life with passion and enthusiasm (regardless of the hardship and hurdles coming my way). I've gone through my share of hardship, but who hasn't - right? We all have our stories, our struggles, our burdens, our hurdles. What differentiates us, is what we do with them and how we decide to approach life, in-spite of them.

My challenges won't end (heck, I am a single mom of a teenage son - enough said!). I have always been grateful for my life and have learned to appreciate the lessons given to me, but I could definitely learn to skip my way through this crazy journey - rather than just putting one foot in front of the other. 

Regardless of what is going on right now in your life -- take some time to skip, smile, and appreciate the challenges you are going through. They make you, you!

Love,

Kristin