It gets worse before it gets better

If things feel hard, here’s something to ponder: it gets worse before it gets better. This is neither good news nor bad news. It’s the truth, and you deserve to know.

Today isn’t always better than yesterday.

“Up and to the right” is a fallacy beloved by the citizens of teenager empires. It’s the longing to tug the velveteen comfort of the past into the opaque glass future. It’s the perverse insistence that every day should be the best day of your life.

Older civilizations, jaded by bitter experience, embrace the circle instead of the skyward ray. Samara, yin yang, rota fortunae. Nothing lasts forever, because there is no past and there is no future. There is only now.

Life is the cycle between sunshine and rain. Sometimes you’ll need sunglasses. Other times an umbrella. You can do anything you want. You’ll never get it all done. Because you can’t do everything.

Now then. Tomorrow isn’t always worse than today.

Sometimes it gets better before it gets worse. You get a few more days of sun before the warmth is felled by winter. This is neither good news nor bad news. It’s the truth, and you deserve to know.