.Silver Linings.

I believe in silver linings....and I believe that it takes a brave person to look for the best in themselves and to expect it from others. You won't always get it back....the expectation that is....but I believe it's okay to hope for the best, strive for better, and live for right now...in whatever capacity that may be.

When you stare rock bottom in the face you wonder how things could ever get better without ever contemplating how they could get worse.....then it hits you that you're becoming a negative nancy...that shutting out the world isn't going to make you feel any better and the only person you have to blame is yourself for beginning to shut out the world. It's a pretty lonely place--I can tell you that from experience. Pushing people away didn't get me anywhere....in fact, I can look back now and tell you how awful it feels to know I denied their love. People naturally want to help....and if you're anything like me-you're a doer and a fixer. Rock bottom made me so aware of the capacity of love people have. the hardest part, though, is knowing it took rock bottom for me to see that it could always be worse and that silver linings always exist.

What is your silver lining? Well, maybe, what was your rock bottom...or maybe, what is your rock bottom? Each of us finds it differently....has different struggles....but we are all united in pain--we ache for one another when the pain comes....and we dream of the day when it doesn't ever hurt like this again....when we finally stare hope square in the face and leap to her--hold on for dear life--and never again let what happened to us define us.

We are strong you know.....those who hope....we have stared the worst situations in the face and kept going. We have picked ourselves off the ground, dusted ourselves off, and tried again. We have had sleepless nights and long, long days....we have loved and lost....experienced failure and defeat...and live to tell the story. We, who believe in the silver linings......are survivors.