There is a wonderful saying I love that describes life in a perfect way: Some days you’re the bug, and some days you’re the windshield. I often find myself repeating this – usually more when I’m in the squished flat camp rather than the brazen, take-no-prisoners world of the windshield set – but from either side this saying always brings me back to its guiding principal. That to be alive is to participate in life’s balancing act.

We can all picture the memory of a good day, just as we can easily draw back to the memory of a bad. It’s probably easier, in fact, to bring up the memory of a bad day as these are the memories that like to linger, likes to live on in our baggage even long after the weight of them is necessary. Why do we do this? Perhaps we like to keep our ghosts around, for fear that once they are gone we may truly be alone with ourselves.

On such bad days – even the really, truly terrible ones when the world has you body slammed against her, guts everywhere, squished down to two-dimensional – you still have one thing going for you. Because what our saying did not mention is the most important part: Unlike a bug, you are not about to be turned into wiper fluid mush. You are hit, but it is not permanent. You can still pick yourself up off of the windshield. You are not dead.

Did you know that one human brain can produce, in one day, more electrical signals than all the phone calls in the world put together? Did you know that a queen bee will lay around 1,500 eggs per day, which is peanuts when compared to the termite who can lay 36,000 eggs in a day? Talk about a boss lady. Did you further know that in one day our human bodies will generate approximately twenty-four billion new cells, while in every two seconds those same human bodies will destroy a football field worth of trees?

Every second, every day, the world around us, and inside us, is in constant motion. In its movement it carries with it strange and astounding feats, making magic happen right outside our windows, letting miracles occur right at our fingertips. Even on days when we may be cursing the world for letting us miss our train, or letting the lights inside turn dark at the passing of a dearest one, those same miracles inconsiderately, and insistently, continue onwards.

“We see things not as they are, but as we are.”                                                                                                                                  – Louise Hay          

The world as we know it is just the reflection of what, and how, we perceive. And nothing shrinks perspective faster than bad news. To find out that something wanted is not coming, or that something unwanted is imminent is the surest way to build tunnel vision at the cost the rest of the world dissolving. When your problem gets all of your focus, your focus is only on your problem. The world from here looks small, and bleak, because there is nothing else here to see. You’ve enclosed yourself in a single sphere of misery, and yet, just out there, just outside the circle of doom and gloom close enough to reach, the world around you continues.

Did you know that the average six-year old will laugh around three hundred times a day? But by the time they grow up into an adult that number shrinks down to just fifteen to one hundred times per day. Talk about a real bad joke, eh? Did you also know that on average, per day, our brain will run through approximately 70,000 different thoughts? That’s a lot of brain power to harness on the good, or the bad.

Life is not truly incredible for the horrible things that can happen suddenly, unexpectedly; life is incredible for its will to continue on despite the terrible things happening. Those little facts and figures charting the miracles all around you will continue to plod along, even while your own world is imploding, during it, and after. How can this be? Because life demands to be lived. Even in the darkest hour, even when the faintest glimmer of a happier time seems like a mirage, even then, life all around goes on.

So know that at any moment, any time you wish, you can lift your head up even if for just a second, outside of yourself, and notice life’s tenacious continuation all around. And rather than fault it for moving onwards while you are so stuck, thank it instead. For there is no better proof that life goes on than in the observation of life, continuing to go on.

We all get small, we have all been beaten down by fear, by uncertainty. But in the moments when we know the least, when everything is outside of our control, don’t hesitate to look around you. Raise your gaze beyond the gated community of your problems, yourself. Look over yonder, even if it’s just outside a window. Notice how the trees are changing their outfits for the season, how they are so on trend and looking fabulous. Notice how the squirrels all jump and quarrel with the world, even when there is no one around to argue with. Notice the life going on, and notice that you are one part of this great action, too. Notice that life is meant to be lived, and even when you think you can’t, go outside of yourself and you will find you do remember how to live it.

“Life loves you.”                                                                                                                       – Louise Hay        

Author’s Note: For the facts found in this article please refer to the book Every Day on Earth: Fun Facts that Happen Every 24 Hours by Matthew Murrie. Take care of yourselves, surprise someone you love with a text complimenting them, and give a smile away for free. SHARE if you like it, and I will see you back here next week!