Charles Dickens once wrote: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
He wasn’t wrong when writing that all those years ago, and it still fits today. It probably will always be one of those timeless quotes that work regardless of the year.
Perhaps that’s just the rhythm of life, the balance of the good with the not-so-good—the horrible with the manageable. And we work with it based on where we are in this strange dance.
Perhaps these polar pieces are always there for us to see; it’s a question of which pair of the lens are in our glasses at that time.
If that’s the case, if it’s a bit of both are present at each moment, we can at least choose our responses to these things. Maybe work more closely to find more of the good and less of the bad. Perhaps we can help others also have more of the good. At least we have hope for that.