When Life is Hard

It’s been a tough few months. Within the space of three days at the beginning of May, we received a 60-day notice to move (illegally, as it turns out), and had to euthanize Miri, the Very Soft Cat. The housing market around here is a nightmare and it took more than 60 days to find a new place and move.

But the new place is much nicer, and only a little more expensive. And we now have a feisy and playful new tuxedo cat, Kiki, who I prefer to call Rocket J. Squirrel.

Life, however, was not done with us. Yesterday, I lost my job.

Now, there is a lot I could say about this, but I’m not going to go into details. Suffice to say that it wasn’t my fault and I’m pretty angry and sad about it. And there is certainly a sense of unfairness: why are all these things happening to me, at once, seemingly at random?

But life isn’t fair. Try though we may to create a just world, bad things will still happen to good people. There is no cosmic balancing, no karma.

I know I’m not alone in living with these kinds of feelings. It’s hard, when fear closes over you and the prospect of your very survival feels threatened. When money or housing or health care expenses turn upon you like a tightening vise.

And I don’t have any magical suggestions for how to grapple with such situations. The only thing I can think of that helps me, and might help you, is to consider Atheopagan Principle 5: Perspective and Humor.

The long view takes the sting out of present circumstances. And we find ways to persevere.

There WILL be another job and another chapter.

I’m grateful (Principle 3) for friends and community. Eleven people came to help us move over the nine days it took to pack up and get over to our new home. And the expressions of sympathy and support I’ve received from the Atheopagan community make a bigger difference than you might think.

So to those, like me, who are struggling now, I say take heart. Even things that seem as though they will never change will change. Situations that seem desperate do ease. Unexpected help comes, and good fortune does, too.

It’s going to be another emotional roller coaster for awhile until I have gainful employment again. It’s wearying to contemplate the big hill that has to be climbed, but climb it I shall.

Be of stout heart. We—you and I, both—have got this.