“I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.”
-Vincent Van Gogh
“Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position. But certainty is an absurd one.”
-Voltaire
Life is, by nature, uncertain. We can’t predict everything, and no matter how hard we try, things don’t always work out the way we expect. But while the words above do hold some truth, I can’t say that I completely agree with what they have to say about the nature of certainty. Because I think that there are things in life we can be certain about. They might not be big things, like what tomorrow will look like, but they are things we can can hold onto in those times when nothing else seems to make sense. These are my certainties. They may not be the same as yours, but that’s okay.
My Certainties
#1. There are things in life you can control, and things you can’t. If you spend all your time focusing on the things you can’t control, all of your opportunities to control what you can will pass you by.
#2. I am loved. No matter how lonely I might feel at any given moment, I know without a shadow of a doubt that I can count on all my fingers and toes people in my life who love me and would be there for me if I needed them.
#3. Nobody is guaranteed a tomorrow, so we better make the most of all of our todays.
#4. No matter how content you are with yourself, you can never be truly fulfilled without meaningful connections with others.
#5. Not everybody I meet is going to like me, just like I am not going to like everybody I meet. The trick is remembering that that is okay.
#6. Hand-written letters are some of the greatest gifts a person can give or receive and it is a real shame that people don’t write them more.
#7. A compliment from a child is the best kind of compliment you can get. Children don’t give compliments as small talk or to make themselves look good like adults so often do. If you get a compliment from a child, you can count on it being sincere.
#8. Adults underestimate children far too often. Kids hear, see, feel, and understand far more than we give them credit for, and they are more capable than we often expect.
#9. Old dogs can be taught new tricks if they have the right teacher.
#10. You can’t hold other people to the same standards to which you hold yourself. Sometimes they are too high, and often they are too low.
#11. It is possible to love someone and still need to distance yourself from them. Sometimes it is our love for others that makes a relationship less than healthy.
#12. Reading the signature pages in old yearbooks will never fail to make me laugh, and will always succeed in making me cry, sometimes at the same time.
#13. Helping someone else succeed at something you have struggled with is one of the most rewarding feelings imaginable.
#14. “Everything happens for a reason” is a lie. Sometimes bad things happen senselessly, and trying to justify them often makes them feel worse. But it is possible to create something good out of something bad. Not easy, but possible.
#15. We can’t change time, but we can change how we choose we spend our time.
#16. You can learn something new from every single person you meet.
#17. The smell of homemade soup will always make me feel better.
#18. Christmas comes after Thanksgiving, and Black Friday is a representation of most of what is wrong with our society.
#19. Disappointment is a fact of life, but we shouldn’t always be lowering our expectations to avoid it.
#20. It is possible to love a person without liking them.
#21. It is easier to give our advice to others than it is to follow it ourselves.
#22. Music, words, and art are tangible things. You can feel them just as surely as you can feel the wind on your face and the sand between your feet.
#23. Perspective is everything.
#24. Everyone should experience sailing at least once in their life.
#25. Having faith that things will work out in the end only works if you also put forth the effort to make them work.
#26. You have never know how you will react in a situation until you actually have to react.
#27. You can’t expect people to respect you if you don’t respect yourself first.
#28. Your health and safety comes first.
#29. Waking up naturally is always better than waking up to an alarm clock.
#30. At any given point, there is always someone that you owe a thank you to, and it is never too late to give it.