You know the type…..the person who always believes everything will turn out positive. Yep, that’s me to some degree. I always want to believe that things happen for a reason and turn out the way they’re supposed to. Why would any of us want to believe we go through trials only to be disappointed in the end? I mean, really…..who thinks that?! So yes, I try to find a lesson in every moment of disappointment or hurt. I try to find the good. I see the best in everyone whom I encounter. Why not? After all, there’s a reason God brought these people into my life. Life is so full of uncertainty and questions. If we look, we will always find a reason against whatever thought our mind is gravitating towards. We are always able to play devil’s advocate in any given situation. I mean, that’s the enemy’s work, right?! It’s the enemy’s job to convince us that the positive feelings we have in one moment are simply fleeting and perhaps not genuine. Why do we allow those thoughts to even creep in for a moment? I am an eternal optimist. In my very first teaching job out of college, the superintendent of the school district where I taught said he thought I was a hopeless optimist. He said I wished for the moon for my students and I needed to ground myself in reality. You see, I worked in a very rural school district, where students didn’t even have running water in their homes. Yet, I, this 21-year-old college graduate who had lived all over the world, believed that these students didn’t need to be defined by their circumstances, but rather by the opportunity that was before them. I tried my hardest at 21 years old, to show them a world that they never would have imagined otherwise. Perhaps it was naivety, but I believed that anything was possible if we just believed and worked to make it happen for these students. Funny thing is that I am still that eternal optimist after all of these years. I believe that if you have enough faith and heart in whatever it is you believe, it will happen. Maybe I’m still naive after all of these years. But, I guess I want to believe in the extraordinary…..the impossible. I’m willing to put myself out there time and time again, praying that my optimism will come through. I know it’s there for me. I just have to have faith. I’ll tell you what…..I’ve been sick since October 24. This is something like I’ve never experienced before. Flu, then bronchitis and ear infection, then a week or two of mild improvement, only to turn into pneumonia. Seriously…..I can’t make this stuff up. My body is telling me something. Not sure what that is yet……but I keep telling my body no. I’m not letting this keep me down. I have way too much to give and I can’t be held down by some silly sickness. Yet, here I sit in bed wishing I could just sleep and wake up all better. I’ve cried many tears over the last month, both from health and heart. I also have felt many joyful moments and have seen glimpses of an amazing life before me. I pray this is the start of something amazing…..something that just needed the right timing and the right reflection. I’m feeling a renewed hope. For I know the plans I have for you……..says the Lord. Jeremiah 29:11. Man, I hold onto that verse tightly. I pray that’s why each day unfolds the way it does. I pray that my dreams of the future come to fruition. That my dreams are shared by those whom I hold close. I pray that what I’m feeling today stays with me and evolves into something extraordinary. Certainty can’t be known just yet, but working toward certainty is the best feeling and the greatest leap of faith…..putting our trust in God. To hear those three words spoken….and felt, is all any of us wants…….so……To all of those eternal optimists out there…..you’re not alone! Our time is coming!