To pass the time while waiting my turn in a long line, I scrolled through Facebook. The following story, “Look Up,” by Lizzie Jayne caught my attention.
“How do you do it?” asked the rabbit.
“Do what?” replied the sunflower.
“Stand tall and strong after all you have faced.”
“I don’t know what you mean!” the flower exclaimed. “Will you explain?”
“Well, you’ve endured the birds pecking at your seeds and being trampled on when you were small. You’ve fought off all sorts of things that would ravage your leaves and faced the harshest of storms. Yet, here you are, tall and strong and beautiful. I do admire you. What’s your secret?”
“Ah, now that I do understand! Just turn your face towards the light that shines hope and love, then you can face anything life throws at you.”
“How often must I do this?” enquired the rabbit.
“Every single day” the flower replied, and lifted his head towards the sun.
I can relate to the light above bringing hope that allows us to face “anything life throws” at us. As American poet Walt Whitman said, “Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.” To me, Whitman is telling us to stay hopeful no matter what challenges we face on our life journey and that by focusing on the bright, the good (the sunshine) in our lives, we can be positive and optimistic even as we work through challenging times. His words of wisdom are a call to look for the silver linings in life.
The challenging times in our life are like the clouds that block the sunshine from reaching us; without the hope of the light of the sunshine, we may feel unhappy, disappointed, fearful, stressed (add an emotion or an adjective that applies to you when something challenging happens). But, we need to remember that ‘every cloud has a silver lining.’
In the midst of the ‘cloud,’ the challenge, it is often difficult to see beyond what is right in front of us. But, every situation that is challenging does offer us a learning opportunity. Every situation that is challenging provides us a blesson (a blessing with the lesson). Every situation that is challenging seems to test our strength and patience but it also shows us just how strong and how much we really can endure. While we don’t want things to be difficult or uncomfortable (cloudy), these situations do have merit, have value (a silver lining). We just have to be open to look for and see the positive rather than focusing on the negative. As blogger Edith Shannon said, “Sometimes two minuses make a plus.”
There are a few things that we can do to get us to the point where we are able to see the silver lining (the good, the positive) when the clouds (the challenging, the negative) are hanging low. We can reframe our thoughts. Abraham Lincoln said, “We can complain because rose bushes have thorns or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.” There is a positive aspect in everything; we just have to look for it. We can see roses in the midst of thorns if we set our mind to it!
Making the most of all situations can also help us see the silver lining. Despite any challenges, we can choose to be resilient and endure. We don’t have to lose the twinkle in our eyes. Yes, life is hard at times, but it is our choice how we deal with and what we take from those hard times. Overcoming a challenge makes us feel good!
We can also have an attitude of gratitude for what we do have. Instead of focusing on what is wrong or what is lacking, we can be grateful what we do have in the moment.
It also makes it easier to see the silver lining in the clouds if we concentrate on positive self-talk. Replace negative thoughts and words with positive ones, words that make us feel happy and in control. Concentrate on positive thoughts with positive results.
Reaching out to help someone else who may be struggling with something is another way to help us see the silver lining in situations. When we can reach out and support, show kindness, empathize with others, or commiserate, it helps us put/keep things in perspective and helps us find good and see good in situations.
Silver linings reveal themselves on cloudy days. (Same with rainbows – you can’t have a rainbow with the rain.) Any challenge that leaves us feeling disappointed, angry, frustrated (any negative emotion) is our cloudy day. And, since we will all face some type of challenge in life, there may be several cloudy days throughout our life’s journey. If instead of dwelling on the negative in the challenge we look for the silver lining, we may be better able to find or to make peace with ourselves and with the situation.
Even on a cloudy day, if we just look up and picture the sun, the light, above the clouds we will be able to avoid the shadows that try to take over. We will be able to maintain hope. We will be able to direct our energy on dealing with whatever we are facing. We will make it through any challenge.
Author Becky Johnen 