How to Keep Going When Hard Times Hit

Earlier today, I saw three little hummingbirds hovering near my neighbor's feeder. We never see hummingbirds this time of year, but their twinkling emerald feather were a welcomed sight.

The last two weekends, my family and I have suffered a lot of bad news. After a four month delay, we finally got to say goodbye to a good family friend who passed away back in May. Then, just yesterday, we received news of the passing of my Aunt Judy, after a long illness (thankfully, it wasn't COVID). Ugly crying and despair came shortly afterwards.

Tragedy has been a familiar face in our lives for some years now. The passage of time always proves that the idea that some people will just going forever is a false one. And, as time moves forward, people who once were there eventually will be gone.

In times like these, I've always tended to become more introspective than usual. I reassess about what it is that I'm doing with my life now that another part of my past is gone. With this comes questions. Am I doing the right thing? Should I have done this instead of that? If I change now, is there a chance to make up for what I've wasted? Most of all comes the big question: what's the goddamn point?

If there is a God (an idea I find difficult to except, considering all the evidence to the contrary. Don't @ me), and he/she/they created us in their image, then why in the universe would they all humanity to undergo such suffering? To give us a good standard of comparison for what we won't have to deal with in Paradise? To test our faith in their divine plan, like Job? Or is this some sick form of tough love for the creator of the Universe?

In more recent years, I've leaned more toward the idea that we make our own meaning. The things we go through in life matter because we decide that they matter to us--and that's enough of a reason to cherish our time in the world. 

So, in the face of hard times, when I'm in pain but life still has to move on, how do I cope with it? I do it the same way I handle every setback: I find solace in the little things.

On a semi-regular basis, one of my best friends and I (who I haven't bee able to see since the pandemic lockdown) trade our favorite jokes. We just text them back and forth to each other. Some are our favorites from top-flight comics, like Rodney Dangerfield, and others are originals. We even trade bits of criticism to try and help improve the originals. I'll see if I can come up with something to send him later today.

A few days ago, I started work on another short story that will eventually wind up in another anthology. It's a new challenge for me, as even new story is for a writer, but this one is a double-challenge. Not only is the story itself a new one, I'll be working in a whole new genre: zombie fiction. I'm hoping to make some further progress on it today.

Today, I finished another great series on Netflix titled Erase. Good god, that's a great show. A complicated time-travel story, with this intricate mystery plot at the heart of it. A series definitely worth any anime fan's binge-watching time. 

And then, this morning, I saw those hummingbirds. I could help but smile when I spotted one of them sitting on a telephone line. 

These small things don't take the pain away from hard times. But they do help with relieve it for a little while. It'll take time before it's gone, but with the little things that bring me joy, it'll make that pasage of time more bearable.