Would you appreciate the sun if it came out from behind the clouds every single day? Or would it become a normal, monotonous sight? Would you bask in its rays and look up in awe, or would you take its shine for granted?

It’s easy to complain about rain. It’s easy to blame a bad day or a somber mood on a dismal, clouded horizon. And it sure is easy to use the weather as an excuse to stay in bed and live with less of a zest for this amazing earthly experience.

On a similar note, would you appreciate all of the joys in your life if you never experienced any sadness? Would you realize their worth or magnificence without the juxtaposition of heartache and hardship?

I’m not insinuating that sitting on the floor crying your eyes out until you can’t cry anymore is beautiful. It’s raw, rough, and unbearable. But it’s moments like those where you find yourself among your broken pieces. You make a mosaic with shards of who you were, who you are, and who you hope to be. It’s those uphill battles that lead to a mountaintop of bliss.

Life seems to vacillate between periods of joy and periods of growth. But the key is in the terminology- a period of growth, not of sorrow. You may experience heart-wrenching pain, but that is merely a side effect of the work that your current circumstances are placing on you. While you're in the thick of a hard time, you are growing in ways you cannot even imagine. Just as a wound heals itself, your body is repairing the damage in ways that you cannot see. Until one day you find that you're healed.

Just like one day you find that you are washed clean of suffering because your growth is complete.

You come out stronger on the other side, with a world of knowledge within you. Think about this as you feel your pain. Whether you are going through a break up, mourning the loss of a loved one, or feeling desolate isolation, those events are working to bring you to a returned state of happiness. They are constantly working to veer you back unto a path where the sun shines and the sky is blue. Embrace change and uncertainty. Embrace fear and doubt. Embrace sorrow and pain.

Notice then, the flowers that sprouted from the turmoil. They needed the rain to shower down on them, or they would have never made it through the dirt. Which leads me to a poem I thought up during a time of turmoil that I had myself, "grow through the dirt to rise up to the sun, you have to walk first before you can run."