Today Florida is earning its namesake.  It’s bathed in full sun – but that only happens because of some adverse weather which precedes the cloudless sky.  Is this a law of the Universe?I tend to think so.  OK, maybe that doesn’t happen with every single thing – but that’s what makes life worth living.  However, one thing I’ve found is that every dark cloud does have a silver lining.  Even when you don’t expect it.

Yes, you have to open your eyes to see it – or you’ll continue into the next dark cloud.  Sorta like the people who only come out when it’s raining and claim that life is only dark clouds and rain.

But why is it set up this way?  Why are we wired in such a way that we have to go through this pattern in order to – what?  Learn?  Is that it?

Are we the type of creature that we must pass through the bleak to enable us to grow?

And yet I look around nature and seemingly everything is “wired” this way.  Plants go through this – they have to – in order to harden and be good for anything.  Have you noticed how much harder the plants are that either grow slowly and have to experience years of turmoil than the ones that shoot up overnight?

The earth, rocks, soil, it’s all like this – but why?  Couldn’t it have been designed differently?

I don’t have the answer.  I simply assume not.

Accepting this process is like taking a weight off.  If we are designed this way, and if we accept that we will experience some dark clouds with the sole purpose of refining us while we’re here – then when hard times come, we should embrace them.

It’s rough, and if the plant had a choice, maybe it would simply not push its way through the soil.  Maybe giving birth would be the end.  Or maybe we would simply give up when the going gets rough.

Instead, we have to hold on to the common knowledge that these refining fires are what make us better.  And none of us are exempt.  We all have something that needs to grow – to improve.

If this is you, if you are going through a tough time – hold on to that gem – that you will get through this and you will become better for it – even though at the moment it is so bitter, so hard.

Write in your journal today that you will be made a better person and list the things that will be better because of the fire you are going through.  Reflect on these each day and work towards becoming those things.

Know that the darkest hour of the night is just before dawn.