Ups, downs, and smiling a mile wide

This year has been a series of ups and downs. The first few months were pretty trying- work being stagnant and very few hours to go around and 2 deaths of close people in my life it made me a very emotional person, even more than usual. Which if you know me, you know that that is a lot.  I was in a definite funk. I had lack of motivation and was amp to cry at anything that was thrown at me. Usually I can handle things better, but i just could not. It's not that I didn't want to, it was just very hard and trying at time.  Throw in a long winter with lack of sun and a stretch of cold, rainy dark days & nights made me have a serious case of the permanent gloomies.  But eventually the sun's return and my grief taking it's toll and getting through it, I became back to myself and beat the miserable moments and have started being steadily joyful.  Ups and downs are really what makes us all- when the "ups" are really "up" things are fantastic and great, but the lows and the down moments are sometimes unbearable to want to try to even overcome. Getting through it- really pushing through is what makes me realize that there is a lot to be truly grateful for.  Right now there are a lot of wonderful things that make me have a smile that doesn't want to go away.