No Pulpit this week.
Go be with your family and friends.

Winter. Cold. Snowy. Rainy. Icy. Cloudy.  Unless, of course, you're a snowbird and travel to a warmer climate for the winter. Many do. Many can't. Perhaps you live in an area where the temps are fairly level all year around. Then there's living in a northern climate with colder weather more prevalent. Many look around at other places to live or stay. Others love where they are at.

Sometimes the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. Sometimes it isn't. How do you know? A lot of times it's hard to do. With the Internet, it makes researching areas a lot easier. There are websites devoted to cultures, places, people. Still, it's not the same as being there.

Change can be good or bad. Finding comfort in a lack of change can be good and bad. Sometimes going through the bad times brings about good fortunes later on.

Do the best that you can. Make the best choice from what you are given. The world can be an amazing place no matter where you live. Sometimes it just takes effort to find it.

What does it all mean? It means Life is always changing, even if you are staying still. Take moments away from your world and appreciate Life. You might be surprised at what you find.

Have a dream. Have a goal. Dare to find something worth pursuing. Just don't pick something impossible. Having a dream of living on the sun is pretty much impossible at this point in time. But, something improbable? Many people not only have dreams of colonizing space, Mars, etc, but are actively working towards that goal.


Or perhaps learn another skill. Something which helps change careers? Learn a language. There are a multitude of things to do.

What happens when life interferes and your dream gets squashed? First, dreams never get squashed. Dreams will always be there as long as you hold to them. But, life can put dreams on hold. Just don't keep them on hold too long. Persevere. Learn to be a bit stubborn but not detrimentally stubborn.

Having a dream is like building hope. You work at getting to the end and think of imaginative ways to get there. Things happen to slow or stop progress, but then the dream comes back alive. or resurrected. Hope is rebuilt.

Dream.

When the darkness settles and there is little help, be strong enough to be the light. Some things sound easy but aren't. Some things sound tough and are. Some things are easy. This is all of these.


If a friend or family member is having a rough time and you help them out, you are a light.
If you do something nice for someone, you are a light.
Help a colleague at work, even when it doesn't help you to move upwards, you are a light.
Some of these are easy things to do.

When your world falls apart, darkness hits, and everything goes wrong, it is hard to be a light. Some people will dig deep down and keep going through the tough times. All will seem lost but they will keep going. They are building a light. In this, the saying about getting knocked down 6 times but getting up 7 is appropriate. Doesn't mean you can't catch a breath and rest before getting up. It just means that your spirit keeps going. This is building a light within yourself.

If you had no bad times and all was good times, how well could you handle it when the bad times do show up? Better to have smaller bumps in the road, smaller hills to climb, a bit of downs in your life so that you can learn how to keep going through adversity. Then when hard times hit strong, you have something in you to keep you going. To build a light in the darkness.