What's the Hardest Thing You've Been Through?

Because I write honest stories about my life here, many people are honest with me about their lives, about what they are going through. It's interesting. People I know well and people I know reasonably well and people I don't know at all are opening up to me right and left about their stories and their struggles and while it can feel overwhelming at times, I love it.

I love it because it's an honor. It's an honor to listen. I love it because I believe that so much good can come when we examine our experiences good and bad.

In all this listening, I've realized something. Many of the people I come to adore have been through hard things. There's obviously a vast continuum of the hard things we human beings can weather, but what I've seen is that struggle, smaller or bigger, elemental or extreme, makes us more humble and compassionate and even more interesting human beings.

And I guess this is very good news. Because like it or not, we will all go through hard things in life. It's just part of the deal. And so maybe these hard things are affecting us in ways that are good and redeeming, in ways that will render us more layered and loving people. A positive way to look at it all if you ask me.

Thanks to all of you who have reached out and told me bits of your stories. Know that it means a great deal to me and your stories have now, in a wonderful and ineffable way, become part of my own. If you are currently going through something hard, maybe this post will offer a tiny sliver of solace. I believe and deeply that it is the hard things that make us who we are, and maybe even who we want to be.

What's the hardest thing you've been through in your life? Feel free to email me if you don't wish to share in the comment box.