From My Notebooks

Like most writers I have countless notebooks. Some filled and many half-filled. Opening up an old notebook is like discovering a small treasure. When you consider that an average person can have anywhere between 6,000 and 60,000 thoughts a day -- its no wonder we're likely to forget a good many of our thoughts.

And so in revisiting an old notebook I can't help but feel as if I am recapturing, not just words and thoughts, but meaning.

And isn't that the whole point of a writers literary venture? To discover some form of meaning.

To fill a page with the what ifs? The maybes. The somehows. And the impossibilities of life that can be magically orchestrated with the tip of a pen or the strike of a finger on a keyboard.

When I found these words scribbled within several pages of random musings I stopped and paid a little closer attention. What was I getting at exactly? Why did I write these words?

Perhaps I was giving myself a pep-talk as I wrote. Or perhaps I was simply summarizing my overall approach to life and living. Every bad turn of events I choose to meet with an eye toward the sun. I have no patience for obstacles. I don't stop for a minute to consider why something can't happen, or won't work. I always keep my focus on what it is I am after and how soon I can make it come to fruition.

I gather from these few words that when I wrote them I was in the midst of turning toward the light. Giving myself a chance to notice the possibilities instead of the obstacles. Turning away from the shadows of doubt and fueling my mind with the only thoughts that could push me toward inspired action.

The thoughts that adversity can be a gift. And that opportunities are waiting on the other side of challenges you choose to overcome. And mostly that the Universe in all its wisdom offers lessons wrapped in adversity.

If optimism were an art I would consider it one of the few things I have mastered.

Adversity afflicts us all but some of us more than others. And when I think back on my personal history, the many trials. The injustices. The losses. The sorrows. The countless times I had to face the brutal cruelty of this world alone, I remember that this is where strength is born.

In those soul crushing moments of solitude and understanding that sometimes life is not fair. Or that sometimes all will not align as you want it to. It is in those moments that we each must make a choice.

We can either succumb to the adversity or decide not to give in. Decide and declare that adversity will not win.

That if you close your eyes and dig deep you can find another path, another way to reach what you truly desire. Now that these words have been found I hope that they can serve someone. That they can offer an alternate perspective on what it means to face adversity. And what it can mean to overcome it.