Here we are. It was 24 degrees at sunrise this morning, and the sun is still shining. That is quite the contrast to my anniversary here two years ago, when it was gray and raining. I wish I could say I had listened to my own advice, and that I was on a trajectory that I deserved. I feel as though I’ve let myself down, and maybe you too. But I won’t lie to you. I’ll tell you what I’ll do.

I’ll go forward. Maybe it is the shining sun. Maybe it’s me sitting down for the first time in months and writing something. I have to go forward, and so do you. It was never really up to us anyway; time moves on. Some days that is terrifying and some days its a relief. Some days it does not seem like time moves at all. But it certainly does. As certain as the sunrise.

This message sat in my drafts since September. It was a blank page with only a title: FEAR. It was to be a different subject, but it never came to me when I could put the words on the page, and now I do not know if something that I should have said will be missed. And yet, I tell myself, if the words never made it, then it was not meant to be. Why do they not tell us when we’re young, that time is all we really have?

Or do they? Do they tell us and we forget? Do we have to figure it out on our own? It is strange to think that every movement we make might affect the next one, and that our lives could contrast so heavily with what might have been. I was talking to a friend earlier this week and we were discussing art and how it is seemingly so lost in many facets of life that it once had a strong influence on. Buildings, films, automobiles; things that were created with beauty and image in mind and often no longer are. And then my friend said something that I had discovered a long time ago, but in different terms.

“From good pain, comes good art.”

Good pain. Really, it is any pain. If we survive it and conquer it and use it, we can create something that the others just won’t be able to. We can see things differently, find beauty in the darkness, horror in the light and the contrasts we endure and create will be enjoyed by the rest of the world. In doing so, you and I, we are the light. Your darkness is someone else’s beacon of hope. Another’s shining light is your greatest fear. There is a whole range of brightness, and we are all in it. Find what brings it forth.