Things have been feeling difficult lately which, in a perverse way, may be good, because it was all going too good, too well lately so I probably needed this time so that I could appreciate the good times better. It's not always as dark where we are as we seem to think at the time.

I am looking around at other things going on and it does help to realise that other folk are facing their own personal crises and difficult days. It's humbling to see the likes of my 'problems' compared to that of what is going on in other parts of the world too.

We tend to become quickly de-sensitised to so much these days, due in no small way, to the the use of the media and almost instantaneous news. We have 'been there' with soldiers in Iraq and symbolically stood in shocked silence on 9/11, although we may have been thousands of miles away at the time. Of course, this generally applies only to countries where freedom is a valued right. Who knows what may be going on in those places where tyranny rules? 

We may have heard some shocking stories coming out of the likes of places like Uganda, Burma, North Korea, etc., but without the addition of more facts, are left to make up our own mind - before we go back to our daily trivia again. It is the privelige of living in a more free country that we can pause to consider others in worse situations and offer up a silent prayer for them (along with a reccomendation for divine retribution against their oppressors). I doubt those exposed to such experiences do the same.

Even in the midst of adversity, when the sky is at its darkest and we cant see the way ahead, although it may be really really difficult, we have to try and remember that above those dark grey and black clouds, the sun is still burning brightly and that the Darkness we see is only a temporary illusion. After all, the only thing that's really guaranteed in life is that everything changes, eventually.