Have you ever noticed the gravitational pull that the world has on us sometimes? Towards people, specifically. Sometimes people do terrible things — it doesn’t always mean that they’re terrible people, but maybe that they messed up, were confused, or got lost in a moment that was so outside of their normal realm that they were unsure of how to handle themselves. These bad actions can hurt us, though. They can make us question the familiar and the stable and the goodhearted. But despite the doubts, despite the uncertainties, despite the heartache and the confusion, we get pulled back. Something keeps us close. Maybe it’s the fear of losing the familiar. Maybe it’s the confusion of not knowing what to do. Or maybe it’s the small piece of hope that we hang on to, wishing that those terrible things that have been done to us weren’t because people are terrible, but because people simply make mistakes. Maybe it’s that small hope that when the hurt is put aside, love, in some  mysterious and twisted form, still remains.

Surprises. They’re everywhere. They surround us. They suffocate us. And they hide behind every corner. Sometimes we’re surprised by joyful things — a new baby being brought into the world, a job offer, a family visit, even something as small as your friend leaving you the last timbit. But sometimes, oh sometimes surprises are devastating. They often come when you are already at what you perceive to be rock bottom, when one more thing being added to the pile would just make your body and your heart collapse altogether. You get angry. You scream. You react in a way that is so out of character that you think back and wonder who that person even was.

And then something remarkable happens… you realize that you’re still breathing. You’re still standing there, eyes open, heart pumping, and simply breathing. You are still in the fight. An ounce of hope still sits in your heart because you realize that the world is going to continue on regardless of these surprises – regardless of whether they’re joyful or painful, deserving or unjustified, wonderful or heartbreaking. Hold on to that hope and that faith that no matter what, your life is going to go on. Maybe not the way you had planned, maybe not the way you had envisioned, but it will go on in a way that makes you both appreciative of the good things that remain, and grateful for the understanding that once you’ve hit rock bottom, the only place left to go is up.