live through this, and you won't look back.

i get a lot from my mother. her eyes, her temper, her complete lack of patience for stupidity. her stubbornness and her bossiness, and her fanaticism regarding proper grammar. her strong chin. her pack-rat tendencies. and a motto: this too shall pass.

when i was living at home, you would never have caught me giving credence to anything my mother said. more likely, you would have caught me giving it an eye roll and some sort of snort (like a typical teenage snotnose). but, eight years out of the nest will do a lot for one's perspective, and now at the ripe old age of 25, i fully admit that my mother is wise, and that i probably should have started listening more often.

"this too shall pass" has been my mantra of late; i murmur it to myself whenever i feel overwhelmed by consular processing, by the vast mountains of work i have to complete, by the realization of the inadvertant cruelties i commit when the previous two collide. it gives me comfort because it is always, always true. it is a universal constant. no matter what you're going through, eventually something has to change. and it always does. for better or for worse. and despite the fact that it's almost impossible to guess exactly what it is lurking behind door number one, i find solace in just seeing the door. in knowing that if i just wait long enough, no matter what shit i'm embroiled in, no matter how much it sucks, there is always a way out. there is always a solution, of sorts. there is always a future. and even if that future is dreadful, it's a new place to try and claw my way out of; and maybe it'll afford me a better handhold.

and i find that comforting.

this too shall pass. try it. cheaper than therapy.