Member-only story
The Hardest of Life’s Offerings
And what they can teach us about gratitude, empathy, and hope
Full disclosure, though I’ve written about Hard Things in the past and called them exactly that, it was this extremely moving and eye-opening article/personal essay by Brandon Janous in Human Parts that brought my attention not only back to the term and concept — but also what we can learn and how we can benefit from what Brandon simply calls our hards.
Because whatever specific brand of them we may be dealing with, we all indeed have our hards but as Brandon’s story reminded me, some of our hards are far harder than those of others, which should remind us to not only be grateful but also more empathetic and compassionate, to people as a whole. We have no idea how many hards a stranger we pass in the street may be dealing with at once, right at that very moment and a little random kindness costs nothing.
One of, if not the singlehandedly most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid my eyes on IRL, is also probably one of my funniest friends on FaceBook. At a glance, or after a brief scroll of her Instagram, you may be tempted to gather she has it all. She’s one of those females that even the straightest of females hit on via social media because she is not only good looking with an unbelievably nice smile, she has a personality that pulls you in…
