We all need to be reminded once in a while that everything will be okay, and reassured and encouraged to carry on and continue living as best as we can. Even when things are not at their best and we are feeling down and out, to be reminded from someone else that things can always get better can turn your mind around. Optimism is not an easy mindset to carry around all of the time, even by those who seem optimistic all of the time. It can get exhausting to look for the good and the best in everyone and every situation after a while. Sometimes, it is not quite enough to tell yourself, "I'll be fine, soon." Another being, be it a parent, a friend, or a total stranger can look you in the eye and empathize with you for a moment and be the one to really allow you to remember.
Think of hard times like the weather and the earth. There may be a dry year, in which the weather is not at a norm, and your favorite flowers mightn't bloom. This may sadden you, but remember that next year they likely will. Nothing lasts forever, good or bad, for like Yin and Yang, they balance each other out. With life comes death, and then new life. Life is funny that way. It works itself out in a grand circle. When forest creatures pass on, they go back into the earth, and can be consumed and degraded by other creatures. We can look down at the ground and see only an inevitable end or sadness, or we can look up and see the sun rise and the birds paint the sky.
There is no shame in feeling down or sad, but remember to allow yourself to remain open to the world around you. We can learn infinite knowledge through others just in sharing our experiences and reflecting on them together. While you may be pondering something that brings you down, someone around you may have gone through it recently and know how to ease you.
Every day we should work to celebrate life. Even as death may step into your life, look up. The sun still shines, the flowers will still bloom, and every life lived has been part of this journey. Celebrate all that life has to offer, including the lives of others who you share the world with.
At the end of the day, it does not really matter if the glass is half empty of half full. What matters is if we will let someone else fill it the rest of the way.
Inspired by Faery Songs, a poem by John Keats.
I.
Shed no tear! oh, shed no tear!
The flower will bloom another year.
Weep no more! oh, weep no more!
Young buds sleep in the root's white core.
Dry your eyes! oh, dry your eyes!
For I was taught in Paradise
To ease my breast of melodies,--
Shed no tear.
Overhead! look overhead!
'Mong the blossoms white and red--
Look up, look up! I flutter now
On this fresh pomegranate bough.
See me! 'tis this silvery bill
Ever cures the good man's ill.
Shed no tear! oh, shed no tear!
The flower will bloom another year.
Adieu, adieu -- I fly -- adieu!
I vanish in the heaven’s blue,--
Adieu, adieu!
II.
Ah! woe is me! poor silver-wing!
That I must chant thy lady's dirge,
And death to this fair haunt of spring,
Of melody, and streams of flowery verge,--
Poor silver-wing! ah! woe is me!
That I must see
These blossoms snow upon thy lady's pall!
Go, pretty page! and in her ear
Whisper that the hour is near!
Softly tell her not to fear
Such calm favonian burial!
Go, pretty page! and soothly tell,--
The blossoms hang by a melting spell,
And fall they must, ere a star wink thrice
Upon her closed eyes,
That now in vain are weeping their last tears,
At sweet life leaving, and these arbours green,--
Rich dowry from the Spirit of the Spheres,
Alas! poor Queen!
