The past two years have been some of the most trying in recent history. We’re overwhelmed by the constant barrage, and our mental and emotional processing is overtaxed.

Just when we were starting to feel the restrictive collar of fear loosening, beginning to feel a sense of renewal, rejoining, and rebuilding, we’re met with the opposite: destruction, devastation, and senseless violence. How do we cope? How do we not give up our constant striving and take to our beds? 

When the world is as mad as ours is, doubt, cynicism, and hopelessness are tempting.

We can rarely decipher in the present how seemingly disparate elements connect in meaningful ways. But when we look back over our lives, coincidences appear more purposeful. The uncanny and sometimes brutal ways that life unfolded seems destined to have inspired our growth. 

Amid the chaos, there is still reason to soldier on. If those who are suffering so much worse than we ever will are trudging forward, can’t we, too? We can take their cue and insist on keeping our faith. Faith in there being forces greater than us at play. Forces steering us, not toward ultimate catastrophe, but towards greater collective compassion.

Even now, maybe we can believe that this contrasting world is not designed to shatter our spirits, but to invite us to rise. Each moment. Each unforeseen circumstance. Each heartbreak and every bit of suffering. Maybe one day we’ll look back and see how it all came together, intertwined into a matrix with more goodness in it than evil, and more kindness than ego.

Maybe–-even now–there are still miracles to believe in.