This week has been pretty shitty for my emotional and mental state. There was Boston, there was Texas, there was a death of a close family friend, and there was bad news told.

Yes, there are parts of the world where worse things are happening to even better people than I, but I don’t think one can ever compare their sorrow or trials to another since it is all relative to our own personal perceptions of the world and how bad is bad.

If you read the news, and I mean really read it — not just the headlines or “nation” section, but even the “world” section — then you are reminded on a daily basis on how uncertain life is for us all. There are some people in certain parts of the world that statistic claim have less certainty than others but statistics don’t directly create reality now do they?

Horrible, terrible things shouldn’t be the reason for remembering our faith in our cranky neighbor or annoying roommate. The expression of one’s faith should be a daily practice — not imposing upon others but a method of living each day. There are good days, best days, and not-so-great days. But how one views the next day — the one in the future that is necessarily certain that they’ll see — is what determines the here and now, the present.

I have had some pretty terrible days at work where I

was constantly bullied throughout the day. I could have wallowed in the day’s negativity and which would then propel me to decide that I wouldn’t show up to work the next day, or I could feel the feelings while in the moment of sadness and then let the moment pass and decide to face the next day despite the possibility of being subjected to my bully’s comments again.

It’s okay to be sad. It’s okay to be angry. It’s how you express that sadness and that anger that’ll define your today and your tomorrow.

So I’ll have my moments of sad today, and possibly even tomorrow. But I won’t let those moments overshadow the growing fight that is inspired by the sadness — I’ll fight the sad moments of the day by creating moments filled with laughter and smiles, today, helping to propel me to do the same thing tomorrow, if I am so blessed with another day.

Don’t exist. Live.

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” ― Oscar Wilde