What to do when Everything Falls Apart

Hello loves!

So for today's post, I wanted to focus on something a little heavier than usual. It's about when things go wrong in life.

Not just one instance, but the multiple moments in a short period of time that make you feel like you're in the "Alexander & the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" books. But with more serious events than having to buy plain white tennis shoes or not getting your favorite ice cream.

It's rough when it feels like plates you've been balancing crash to the ground one right after the other. Like all the pieces of life you've been holding together finally unravel and everything falls apart. And perhaps one or two of those things wouldn't have mattered as much if they hadn't broken in the same time span as something more important.

When bad things happen-- like a lot of bad things-- we often begin to view every little, inconsequential error or mistake as just another thing in a line of horrible incidents.

I know I've certainly been there.

I reached my balancing plates breaking moment rather recently. It had been a long week of bad or disappointing letdowns happening, occasionally broken up by wildly unexpected moments. One particular day was full of job rejections, the oddest interview I've ever experienced (and not odd in a fun way), and a rough, dragged-out evening that just left me in a mood. Then I received a message that I won't go into detail about, but it certainly was another notch on the series of unfortunate events that spanned within a 24-hour period.

So like any great character from a sitcom, I decided that my only logical next step was to frustratingly wash the dishes while stewing on all the little things that began merging into a Big thing.

The little things are soon joined by the bowl slipping from my hands and shattering in the sink.

Unlike a sitcom, I don't have a canned laugh track in the background to break the tension.

Instead, I just stare at the bowl for a minute; honestly more surprised by the ironic comedic timing of this dish breaking than by the actual act itself. But looking at the shattered fragments in the sink, I realized I had two choices.

When it feels like everything goes wrong, I can either say that means everything is wrong, or I can choose to acknowledge that it's just a feeling, and it will pass.

That's not to invalidate how frustrating, tragic, or upsetting it is when many things don't go how we want them to. Almost everyone will hit a season of bad luck that can easily be mistaken as a sign that everything in our lives is and will always be terrible.

But's that not true.

Even when it doesn't feel like it, the bad luck will end. You will have a reprieve, which I bet will have so many good things coming, and you will be able to look back on the dark time without the heart-stopping anxiety or crippling pain you may be feeling now.

Bad things in life suck. Sometimes it feels like there isn't a reason for it. That's not true, but that doesn't change how it feels when you're currently in a rough spot. Some unfortunate events can be a life lesson (everyone's least favorite thing to hear, I know) or it can be a stepping stone that takes you somewhere even better than you could imagine.

And sometimes bad things happen to us, and we won't find out 'why' or what 'good' could come of it until our next life.

You're allowed to feel the pain, the betrayal or injustice, or whatever it is you're feeling when life is acting like a pile of *poop emoji*. I know it's hard, but in all of that, don't lose hope.

After the broken bowl, I decided to acknowledge that everything felt like it was going wrong, but that my reality was different. I let myself feel my frustration (in this household we support having a cry) and then I reached out to a few people close to me for advice and comfort. And to remind myself that I'm not alone, no matter how it may feel.

You may reach times when you feel like giving up, especially after a long string of bad things. But I promise it will end. As long as you have hope, you can make it through anything.

Don't ever be afraid to feel your feelings or to ask for help.

You are loved, you have a purpose, and this too will pass.

Love y'all!

“Indeed there is hope for a tree. If it’s cut down and still sprouting and its shoots don’t fail, if its roots age in the ground and its stump dies in the dust, at the scent of water, it will bud and produce sprouts like a plant.” --Job 14:7-9