The past few weeks I’ve struggled to find a subject I felt good about. I’ve just felt conflicted over the past couple weeks. So much going on with myself, in the world, in everything. Usually I post something Thursday, as is my routine. The last few days I’ve sent up some prayers for what I needed to write about as I wasn’t coming up with anything. As I’ve listened to some podcast episodes, read some media posts, and noticed a recurring theme in my own life as well as in my surroundings. That theme? “Everything just seems hard.” It was in a book I just finished, my most recent downloaded Rachel hollis podcast, not to mention a couple other places. I sat with my kids during their morning activity and for some reason, Ad Astra Per Aspera just hit my mind. I had always thought it was such a cool flag. If you’ve read my bio, I’m born and raised Kansas and its on the flag. We were always taught about it in school on Kansas Day. It’s Latin for roughly, “to the stars through difficulty.” I started laughing to myself, well if that’s not God’s sense of humor telling me what I need to say this week…
It seems right now, everything is difficult. Just overly difficult. Entertainment is either cancelled or highly limited if people even decide to brave it and go out. Movies are hardly open if they didn’t totally shut. Doctor’s appointments are overly difficult to go to, or even get in now that they have limited hours and can’t have an office full of people. If you have kids, activities are extremely limited if available. People are nervous about childcare. Holidays approaching and families and friends are foregoing their normal gatherings. Just what we need, to keep being cut off from being around people.
I’ve been frustrated on my own lately. Having small kids right now is hard. Just hard. Getting them around kids, friends, fresh air in the impending colder weather. All of it. Hard. So many times I’ve had to take myself out of the room for a few minutes, remind myself that I can do it. Hold it together. I think, well this is what I should be writing about. Then I think, nope this is just life and I’m one of many going through this season. I write out my frustrations and realize even though there is validity in the fact that its hard, I’m making more of it and getting myself worked up. Not helping anyone. In fact, making it worse.
As I drove and listened to Rachel Hollis today and she talked about ways to get through things when life gets hard I thought yes I do most of these things so I’m on my right track. Then as I thought about that phrase Ad Astra Per Aspera, I thought, we go through difficult seasons for a reason. I can tell you, this is a difficult season for everyone. In some way or another, everyone. History is full of difficulty and some suffering. When we buck up and do the work to get ourselves through that difficulty is when we begin to see why it was necessary to go through the difficulty. The way I”ve come to see it, difficult seasons are the way we are forced to grow and be prepared for what’s next. Be it your faith in God, the universe or whatever your belief is. Growth typically means some sort of pain.
Those growing pains look different for everyone. Maybe its forced you to evaluate some of your relationships, evaluate yourself, your job, career path, where your life is currently headed. Sometimes it takes something drastic to force us to look at those areas and realize something needs to change. You may look at people and wish you had what they had. Don’t be so quick until you’ve learned the gritty details of what paths they’ve crossed to get there. To the stars through difficulty is a very real mantra for so many right now.
I’d give some steps on how to figure out how to figure out getting through tough times but that’s for each individual to figure out for themselves. Therapy, writing in general, exercise, whatever yours is. But bear in mind, frustrations don’t disappear until you work through the frustration itself.
Everyone is frustrated with everything right now. Acknowledge we are in a difficult season and know if we can embrace the difficult and learn to work through it, we come out so much better. Its soooo very frustrating not knowing how it will end up better when it’s hard. Just keep in mind, Ad Astra Per Aspera. TO THE STARS THROUGH DIFFICULTY