Until misfortune turns to fortune once more...

Things are...hard right now. There is a lot going on in my life, and most of it takes a lot of energy and worrying. That's life: it's not all good, and it's not all bad. Fortune and misfortune alternate in waves. Even the ancient Hellenes knew this. Plutarch, in his "Moralia" quotes Hippocles, who, upon the death of his children, says:

"All our ancient philosophy states this and urges it upon us; and though there be therein other things which we do not accept, yet at any rate the statement that life is oftentimes toilsome and hard is only too true. For even if it is not so by nature, yet through our own selves it has reached this state of corruption. From a distant time, yes from the beginning, this uncertain fortune has attended us to no good end, and even at our birth there is conjoined with us a portion of evil in everything. For the very seed of life, since it is mortal, participates in this causation, and from this there steal upon us defectiveness of soul, diseases of body, loss of friends by death, and the common portion of mortals."

He goes on to explain that it's always been this way:

"[M]isfortune is nothing novel for man, but that we all have had the same experience of it. For Theophrastus says: "Fortune is heedless, and she has a wonderful power to take away the fruits of our labors and to overturn our seeming tranquility, and for doing this she has no fixed season."

I'll get through this period of hardship, because one thing always remains: the Gods and Their influence in my life. Periods of hardship are necessary to remind us we are human beings and that we can overcome everything human life can throw at us. We're created to take it all and remain steadfast. As Homeros says:

"Nothing more wretched than man doth the earth support on its bosom, never, he says to himself, shall he suffer from evil hereafter, never, so long as the gods give him strength and his knees are still nimble; then when the blessed gods bring upon him grievous affliction, still he endures his misfortune, reluctant but steadfast in spirit. [...] Such is the mood of the men who here on the earth are abiding, w'en as the day which the father of men and of gods brings upon them." [Odysseia XVIII.130]

So if you are going through a hard time too, remember that you are not alone. We all go through hard times and we were made to withstand them. So turn to the Gods and hold your head high. This too, as they say, shall pass.