BOTH/AND

Well, we are a few weeks into quarantine and this is such a strange time to be experiencing the world. It is a time full of the extremes of all of the feelings, its weird right? Extremely Sad things are real and happening and also pain is real and so many people are experiencing deep pain. At the very same time, joy is so real and present and unprecedented amounts of good things are also happening. This time in history and in our lives is teaching us something so very important; life is not all good or all bad, it’s both/and.

I know how tempting it can be to avoid our pain and pretend that life is all joy or even to fall so deep into our pain that we convince ourselves that life is all bad but please don’t fall into the lie that it is one or the other - it’s both/and.

Listen friends, in this weird pandemic time and also for the rest of your life let me tell you something that is always true: things will be hard and you will also find joy if you’re looking for it. BOTH of these things are infinitely true.
So be gentle with yourselves today. Feel your feelings but don’t forget joy. It’s all there for us.

No matter what you are feeling today, know that you are not alone and that feelings don’t last forever. They come and go like seasons and our job is to move through them with open hands, ready and willing to feel whatever comes next. Neither joy nor pain have the final say but rather this weird but beautiful combination of both/and.