Are you looking at the stars?

"We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde

This beautiful, big-perspective quote moved me deeply the first time first time I came upon it. It's as if Oscar had found a way to poetically express my perspective and experience in this life.

No one- not the wealthiest, most gorgeous, most intelligent, most gifted human- is dealt the perfect hand in life. There is no perfect hand. Even the most talented card player knows not to breath a sign of relief with one winning hand. The game isn't over until it is. We can only do our best with each hand we are dealt.

The difference between those who see the glass half empty and the glass half full lies in the eyes of the beholder... and only the beholder can choose what they see. It is indeed a choice. The choice to see abundance, possibility, and blessings is entirely the individual choice of each living, breathing human being.

Some may say, "How can I possibly see the stars, the glass half full, the silver lining? Do you know what has happened in my life? Do you know what I have gone through, what I'm living through, and all the fear upon the horizon?" To those I say, I understand and I deeply empathize. Just as many others, I have not always been dealt the most ideal hand in this life. I grew-up in household with alcoholism and a verbally/mentally abusive parent. My parents almost died in a car accident during my senior year of high school and I dealt with my father's enhanced depression, anxiety, and other mental issues for over a decade proceeding that accident. In my early 20s, I lost my little brother unexpectedly. He, although younger, was the man I looked up to in life and compared other men to. I have made choices I would never make again that cost me relationships and drug my name through the mud. Life can absolutely be full of deep chaos, heartbreak, grief, anger, frustration, depression, anxiety, and answerless questions. Even in those dark seasons, where the clouds are more grey than white, one things can be certain... the sun is still shinning behind them. The light is there, even when we cannot feel its warmth and see its rays. When we do not know the answers, we must understand that the answer exists and will manifest when the time is right. There is plan in place that we may never truly understand. It is not our responsibility to understand. It is our duty to trust. We must trust in the moments of doubt, overwhelm, and uncertainty...even when the idea of doing so feels foreign, unsteady, and vulnerable.

How do we trust in uncertainty? We choose to. We choose to release control of what we think we should be in control of and allow the flow of life to bring us where need to be. We stop fighting the current and choose to release our power to it so life can knowingly take us to our next destination.

Even though we are born in a gutter and can live much of our life in a similar reality, we can see the stars if we allow the clouds to part, the moon to shine, and their eyes to longingly seek the light.

xo Aubrey