This morning it is 19 degrees outside. It is downright balmy after the temperatures we’ve had the last few days. Earlier in the week, when the wind chill was -19 degrees, I was in my bathroom getting ready for work and I saw a bug crawling on the wall. A closer look revealed that it was a lightening bug. When I was a boy my friends and I would catch lightening bugs on summer nights. Now, however, it is a long way from summer. Where has this lightening bug been and how has he survived the frigid weather? On a warmer day I would have captured him and let him go outside. I didn’t do that this time because it would have meant a quick and merciless death. I left him alone and he’s probably sitting in my chair right now reading a book. However he has done it, this lightening bug is a survivor. In our individual ways all of us are survivors. I doubt if anyone who is reading these thoughts is problem free and or has no challenges in life. Some say the purpose of life is to be happy. Even if happiness is not the primary goal of life, it is a safe bet that all of us want to be happy. Unfortunately this happiness often seems elusive. We work hard to keep our lives in order, to do what we need to do, and to balance all the balls each of us must juggle. Sometimes we do this successfully and life seems good. Inevitably though something will happen that challenges our peacefulness and our pursuit of happiness. Life is full of challenges, disappointments, and setbacks. Like the lightening bug crawling on the wall in my bathroom in the middle of winter we keep going. The sun sets and a new day begins the following morning. Each new day is a fresh beginning. The problems and challenges of the night usually seem less so when the morning comes. We survive, we push forward, and often, when we least expect it, happiness arrives at our door. As the Dalai Lama once said, “Never give up”.
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