Clarity

When we were in the midst of an experience, it is easy to forget that there is a Plan.  Sometimes, all we can see is today.
If we were to watch only two minutes of the middle of a television program, it would make little sense.  It would be a disconnected event.
If we were to watch a weaver sewing a tapestry for only a few moments, and focused on only a small piece of work, it would not look beautiful.  It would look like a few peculiar threads randomly placed.
How often we use that same, limited perspective to look at our life -- especially when we are going through a difficult time.
We can learn to have perspective when we are going through those confusing, difficult learning times.  When we are being pelleted by events that make us feel, think, and question, we are in the midst of learning something important.
We can trust that something valuable is being worked out in us -- even when things are difficult, even when we cannot get our bearings.  Insight and clarity do not come until we have mastered our lesson.
Faith is like a muscle.  It must be exercised to grow strong.  Repeated experiences of having to trust what we can't see and repeated experiences of learning to trust that things will work out, are what makes our faith muscles grow more strong.

Today, I will trust that the events in my life are not random.  My experiences are not a mistake.  The Universe, my Higher Power, and life are not picking on me.  I am going through what I need to go through to learn something valuable, something that will prepare me for the joy and love I am seeking.

Nostalgia

"In my life I have found nostalgia to be a very dangerous thing.  Unlike hindsight, which shows you your folly in a painful, morning-after clarity, nostalgia is a pretty store window into the past, smeared with Vaseline, all dreamy-looking.  If hindsight is 20/20, then nostalgia is a look back through rose-colored glasses.  Rose colored glasses that filter out all those pesky rays of truth, showing you happy times, usually much happier than they actually were, that are gone forever.  Sure, you'll be happy again in the future; you may even be happy in the present, but nostalgia takes you by the hand, leads you into the past, and shows you a happiness you'll never quite have again -- because you never really had it in the first place.  To most people nostalgia is sweet.  To me it is bitter and masochistic, but most of all, completely useless."