There is often much light to be found in the darkness

​I have a friend who can be hard on me. Hard in a gentle yet challenging sort of way.

I was bemoaning the lack of sunshine the other day. Genuinely wondering out loud, where has the sun gone and when upon this great earth is it shining its way back.

My friend said, "maybe she's showing you what the opposite of sunshine is so you can learn from opposites and appreciate the side you like more."

Nothing stops bemoaning quite like wisdom and profundity.

Because it's true, at least for me. When the patterns in my life change, I can settle in and begin to wonder when the pattern will return to normal - so I can return to normal. I can begin to wonder when my comfort and my preferences will be once again given the honor they richly deserve.

Only that's not how life works. Life doesn't honor our comforts, life challenges us to get good at finding comfort in all of life.

Sunshine or not.

Life doesn't see sunshine and gloominess as opposites, it just sees them as equal partners in the atmosphere of living. It's us who decides one is better than the other. It's us that decides only one of them has value and the other is a thief.

I don't think my friend was selling me on the beauty of a cloudy day. I don't think she was trying to sway me away from my allegiance to sunshine. But I think she was saying, you can't afford to turn your back on the lessons a gloomy day comes to offer.

I think she was saying you can't spend the rest of your life afraid of darkness when their is actually much light to be found there. Often more than you'll find in a sunny day.

The forecast for the rest of this week is indeed gloomy and drizzly. That is not my preference. But it is my genuine desire to every day get better at this life thing. To be a better and stronger person.

I am thankful for a friend who is willing to challenge me to see gloom as a friend of that desire and not an enemy.

I think we all need friends like that, especially on the cloudy days.