Dash of Sass: The Highs & the Lows of Life

Quotes of the Day:

Perhaps without the lows, the highs could not be reached. ~Stephenie Meyer

Life is about balance. The good and the bad. The highs and the lows. The pina and the colada. ~Ellen DeGeneres

In all the highs and lows – God is still GOD. ~Unknown

The Single Woman Says:

I had one of those horrible cricks in my neck yesterday (is that even a technical term?) that literally left me flat on my back, like an overturned bug, staring at the ceiling for much of the day. This was extremely frustrating for me, because I’m a forward motion kind of girl. I have no idea what I did to bring about this horrible pain in my back, as I’m not exactly an “adventure-seeker”…but I DO like to always be doing something. It feels decadent and lazy and wasteful to me to spend an entire day in bed, even when my body is telling me to rest, take it easy, and recuperate. What was even more irritating about this particular injury at this particular time is I even had to postpone a shoot for the promotional video for my book because of my extremely limited mobility. So all day yesterday, me, a heating pad, and a tube of BenGay bonded while we watched movies from the comforts of my bed. And I cried. And felt helpless. And felt like an overly emotional girl for crying and feeling helpless. But I couldn’t help it. I should be shooting the video for my first book and instead I was stuck shooting the breeze with my cat (who made matters worse by peeing in the floor inexplicably. I think he must have felt the emotional weight of my mini-breakdown and didn’t know what else to do to release his own inner angst.) Anyway. My point to all this is to say – yesterday was a day of lows.

This morning I woke up and felt better. Still stiff and a little achy, but I can at least turn my head to the right, which is a step in the right direction. And almost as soon as I woke up, my doorbell rang. I answered it, hair sticking in a dozen different directions and all, to find a delivery man with what I knew could only be one thing. The advance copy of my book. With shaking hands, I ripped open the envelope and pulled it out. And there it was. In black and white…or actually pink and white.  The moment of all moments. The high of all highs. A dream come true held in my trembling, finite, imperfect hands. Proof that I, Mandy Hale, am a published author.

As extreme and melodramatic as this may sound…suddenly all the other highs AND lows in my life made sense in the second that I stared down at my book. It was one of those beautiful moments in life when you KNOW the reason for absolutely everything that had come before was to push you toward this one moment. This one dream. This one accomplishment. Every tear, every heartbreak, every stumble, every fall were all in the pages of this book, and I was suddenly exponentially grateful for it all. I was also left to marvel at how our greatest highs almost always come on the flipside of our lowest lows. I feel like this is a recurring theme in my life lately. I even heard a message about it in church on Sunday, talking about how God is both the frost AND the sun, the grace AND the discipline. And I think that’s the ebb and flow of our journey here, friends. The victory and the defeat. The tragic and the magic. The glorious highs and the gut-wrenching lows.

I’m not God and I can’t speak for Him and why He often chooses to break us down before He builds us back up…but I do have an opinion on the matter. I think one reason is because without the lows, we wouldn’t appreciate the highs. If every moment was a high, no moment would be a high. If all we did was laugh, joy wouldn’t be quite as magical. And if we never cried, we wouldn’t fully experience the unfettered happiness of a big, wide, goofy grin. After I sat with my book and wept tears of joy over it for a few moments, I took it to show my parents. My mom cried. My dad plucked it from my hands and ran it into the courthouse where he works as a DA and waved it around to show his colleagues his baby daughter’s accomplishment. And I was sat with the sweet simple bliss of knowing I had made my parents proud, which is one of the most precious highs of all.

Here is what I know. The highs create you. The lows create you. It all matters. It all serves a purpose. So when you’re tempted to wish away the lows, remember that the sweetness of the low times is that they allow you to fully experience and appreciate the high times. And know that whatever struggle or heartache or dark night you’re going through, and no matter how long the light may seem to hide…there is a brilliantly sunny day on the other side.