When thoughts are clear, conveying meaning beyond mere daily duties, I feel a clarity like that suggested by a sky free of clouds. But troubles sometimes fling around like gray fog in the mind preventing a bright horizon. Problems can add up until if you start counting them all they seem endless. I came up with 18 the other day. They are like a series of unending gloomy days, like rain that never stops, like thunder that takes out our electricity. They paint my days dark gray and hide the brightness I’d much prefer.
So what can be done? You don’t want to lie to yourself in Pollyanna-fashion, declaring a perfect forecast when it’s not mentally true. Nor do you want to succumb to the dark, damp mindset that will send you off course. You want balance. Fairness. Intelligent understanding of exactly what is going on with you.
You might be justifiably depressed over some tough issues. I fact, you may be facing a tumult of difficulties. We all have from time to time. And just as it is more pleasant to see a clear sky instead of a cloudy one, you can work to solve each dilemma to the best of your ability–even if not perfectly– until you arrive at some bit of clarity.
Take one of the lighter problems first. Think it through. Be open to suggestions that will come as to how you might lift its particular heaviness. Then act. Get something actually done. Work is a healer.
Then handle another from your list, and another, until bit by bit you see your mental sky opening up. No, it may not be a brilliant sunny day, but the light will begin to break through. Then, as my wise uncle once said: “Magnify every scrap of good!”
Our universe is infinitely larger than us. Did you know that 764 earths could fit in Saturn? And 1,300 in Jupiter? The billions of stars, planets, moons, galaxies in which we are barely a speck should give us pause in considering our particular struggles as important.
Our universe is in flux and so are we. We ought graciously wait–and work–for clarity.
On A Clear Day, framed watercolor, 26″ x 22″ by Gwendolyn Evans
Artwork: On A Clear Day, framed watercolor, 26″ x 22″ Painted off the coast near Pemaquid Point, Maine, this watercolor is one of many I’ve recently done of the ocean. Water, especially off beaches, has long been my favorite place to be and paint. There’s something so flexible, changing, emotional, communicative, compelling about the ocean or Lake Michigan. I’ve been fortunate to live by both at various times.