Results 1 to 19 of 19

Thread: Whenever you have a hard day...

  1. #1
    God/dess Lysondra's Avatar
    Joined
    Apr 2005
    Location
    Another Country
    Posts
    18,664
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked 148 Times in 100 Posts

    Default Whenever you have a hard day...

    There was a woman I met on a bus once. She was Indian, English was her second language, she was immigrating to Australia as a single divorced mum, her child with her, and paying off her student loans for her LAW SCHOOL degree.

    Whenever I have a really hard day, I try to think what it's like to be this woman. She was happy and showing her sun the river, saying, "See that bridge? It's the landmark of what will be our new home!" Balancing a child and her law books while she tried hard to learn more adjectives in English, I felt really stupid for thinking my immigration or my divorce was hard.

    I can't even begin to imagine how this woman survives a single day and I can't make it through the morning without getting upset at something stupid.

    It makes me realize my life is pretty good compared to what I'm sure this woman puts up with on a daily basis.

    What do you think about when you have a hard day?


    Look like a woman
    Think like a man
    Act like a lady
    Work like a dog

    - My Great Grandmother Bessie's Recipe for Success

  2. #2
    mermaidnz
    Guest

    Default Re: Whenever you have a hard day...

    i remember the little boy in the gutter on a street in thailand. he was sitting there in rangi clothes, and playign with a broken toy car. he was sitting ina sewer gutter. yuck.

    i walked past, he looked up and gave the biggest most genuine smile i have ever seen.

    that kid will always keep me real.

  3. #3
    madmaxine
    Guest

    Default Re: Whenever you have a hard day...

    I think of my Army veteran cousin still hurting from being in IED blasts in Iraq (he was discharged) & still being a great single dad to his daughter. I think about my stepbrother in the Army, still in Iraq & hope he's OK. I think of my dad, working so hard at an old age & how I want to do better with my life so I can take care of him.

    I think about how lucky I am, more so than others.

  4. #4
    God/dess
    Joined
    Oct 2006
    Posts
    8,427
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked 30 Times in 22 Posts

    Default Re: Whenever you have a hard day...

    this sounds silly, because it's a movie (play, but i can watch it any time i want in movie form! ).. but rent makes me feel better. i think about how there really are people out there who overcome so many worse things than i do, and they're still happy. and while other people having more to overcome doesn't make my problems any less severe to *me*, it puts things in perspective a bit. the movie just reminds me of that.

  5. #5
    Featured Member snoopy's Avatar
    Joined
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Livingston, NJ
    Posts
    1,576
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post

    Default Re: Whenever you have a hard day...

    Quote Originally Posted by mermaidnz View Post
    i remember the little boy in the gutter on a street in thailand. he was sitting there in rangi clothes, and playign with a broken toy car. he was sitting ina sewer gutter. yuck.

    i walked past, he looked up and gave the biggest most genuine smile i have ever seen.

    that kid will always keep me real.
    very similar for me.

    i saw this photo once (when i was in college). it was a picture of a homeless child about 8(?) living on the streets of a modern city (i believe it was belfast, what year? i dunno). the picture was basically of him and the people walking by at that particular moment.

    of the by-standers, there was this young man with black rimmed glasses, just staring at the boy as he walked by. he was staring as if it was the oddest sight he had ever seen but you could still see empathy more than curiosity in his glance.

    there was a couple, the woman was obviously straining not to look at the child. she was focusing on looking and walking straight ahead but with an pained and sad look on her face. the man was looking towards the child but held the woman in (for?) support but also walking straight ahead (away).

    the homeless boy had this agonized defeated look on his face. he had a number of fast food baskets (fish and chips-type baskets) lying around him with newspaper and garbage. so you knew he had been there for a while and also given handouts by some people. but the look of despair was truly haunting.

    he was leaning against the wall with his legs tucked slightly underneath and his hands just laying to his sides. i don't know if he was despairing about life and/or sobbing. he looked more tired of life than sad but i couldn't really tell from the picture. probably both when i really think about it.

    i think about that picture every now and then. i also think about how i'd do anything to prevent my kids ending up like that and that keeps me doing the bs of life.

  6. #6
    aussiepunkshocker
    Guest

    Default Re: Whenever you have a hard day...

    So many things.
    I remember my homeless friends and my squatting days in Sydney and Melbourne (18 years ago) and how cold it was and how hungry I was and tough it was. I remember how fucked the police were too and how many people died one way or another. Although some of the times were miserable it reminds me that we had it pretty good compared to so many other people around the world.
    I also remember that those were some of the best and worst times of my life and that despite all the shit, we had fun. I remember that most times when you think things are bad you can still be happy.

    I feel glad not to be living in extreme poverty, not be in the middle of a war zone, not living somewhere and to have a clean and close water and food supply and so on.

    A friend of mine summed it up in one of her blogs.

    >>yesterday i read this paper from the un.
    it involved militia crimes in the congo. i read this story about a mother who was due to testify against the militia, but before she could, she died of aids. aids she caught from being gang raped.
    sad yet?
    it gets worse. during this gang rape, she was forced to watch two of her small daughters be tortured, killed and eaten. one of the daughters, age 7 i think, was put on a spit and grilled alive while another was boiled in water and oil.
    she watched as her captors ate her children while she was being gang raped and infected with hiv. they refrained from eating her 6 month old daughter, complaining that there wasnt enough flesh, but the baby disappeared anyway.
    :/
    ok, so yeah. my life hardly sucks.<<

  7. #7
    Moderator Optimist's Avatar
    Joined
    Feb 2004
    Location
    House of Aion
    Posts
    8,074
    Thanks
    7,881
    Thanked 5,705 Times in 2,127 Posts
    My Mood
    In Love

    Default Re: Whenever you have a hard day...

    ^^^^HOLY SHIT!!! I wish I had something incredbly uplifting to say after that but....words fail me.
    “What a caterpillar calls the end of the world we call a butterfly.” - ECKHART TOLLE

  8. #8
    God/dess GoldCoastGirl's Avatar
    Joined
    Oct 2002
    Location
    ...hehehe... email me to ask me where i am ! (i dare you!)
    Posts
    11,486
    Thanks
    42
    Thanked 127 Times in 51 Posts

    Default Re: Whenever you have a hard day...

    Actually. I draw upon my own life experiences where I have gone thru a tough time and come out the end okay. I've had plenty to know that when life is a bitch it is only being a bitch temporarily and there is some lesson or some opportunity being presented to me to help me grow as a person.

    Without struggle I would never grow as a person. I wouldn't learn a thing. Seriously.

    The struggles and suffering is a given thing that will happen every so often. It will wake me up out of my 'sleep' and help me learn something. Anything. About myself, the world whatever. there is always a lesson and/or an opportunity in every struggle I have. I may not see it at first yet I will eventually see the lesson and/or opportunity.


    enter: E3167322D9 for your 10% discount

  9. #9
    God/dess Lena's Avatar
    Joined
    Jun 2002
    Location
    On a sweet muddy river.
    Posts
    6,399
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked 78 Times in 43 Posts

    Default Re: Whenever you have a hard day...

    I think about my own life ten or fifteen years ago.



  10. #10
    Veteran Member Emiliana's Avatar
    Joined
    Dec 2004
    Location
    Austin,TX
    Posts
    528
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts

    Default Re: Whenever you have a hard day...

    When shit gets hard for me I just try to remind myself where I could be in ten years. Specifically it is my actions now that determine the quality of my life later. It is really the only thing that gets me out of bed anymore.
    Emiliana



  11. #11
    Kaylinn
    Guest

    Default Re: Whenever you have a hard day...

    I need to remember, and I havent been doign this lately, but I need to remember my life is not that bad. I have a wonderful life in Vegas, and I seem to lose sight of that. I have been homeless before..had a generalyl shitty life before I came to Vegas. Now i have a nice house, nice cars, a great boyfriend, awesome cats...my life is hard right now, but it doesn't suck. I mean..I can alwyas find food to eat, and a warm bed, I take that for granted, and there was a time when I didn't have thoes things...When I have a hard time, I need to keep that in mind.

    I also need to remember that there are peopel who have had MUCH worse lives, and overcome thoes obstacles and went on to do great things...The prusuit of Happiness comes to mind. Or this girl I read a story of who was homeless and Wanted to go to Harvard more than anything. She actually made it into harvard, while living on the streets....If these peoepl can do these things, so can anyone, if you stay strong.

  12. #12
    Banned i.breathe.in's Avatar
    Joined
    Sep 2006
    Location
    ohio
    Posts
    4,967
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts

    Default Re: Whenever you have a hard day...

    i need to read this thread every day...

  13. #13
    madmaxine
    Guest

    Default Re: Whenever you have a hard day...

    Quote Originally Posted by aussiepunkshocker View Post
    I feel glad not to be living in extreme poverty, not be in the middle of a war zone, not living somewhere and to have a clean and close water and food supply and so on.

    A friend of mine summed it up in one of her blogs.

    >>yesterday i read this paper from the un.
    it involved militia crimes in the congo. i read this story about a mother who was due to testify against the militia, but before she could, she died of aids. aids she caught from being gang raped.
    sad yet?
    it gets worse. during this gang rape, she was forced to watch two of her small daughters be tortured, killed and eaten. one of the daughters, age 7 i think, was put on a spit and grilled alive while another was boiled in water and oil.
    she watched as her captors ate her children while she was being gang raped and infected with hiv. they refrained from eating her 6 month old daughter, complaining that there wasnt enough flesh, but the baby disappeared anyway.
    :/
    ok, so yeah. my life hardly sucks.<<
    Damn.....

    After I saw an "Oprah" show about atrocities in Africa, I decided to never feel bad about my life again...& since then, I have never let myself really think things were all that bad for me....

  14. #14
    AlexxaHex
    Guest

    Default Re: Whenever you have a hard day...

    "DAMN" is right! I cannot imagine surviving that kind of torture. I can't even wrap my brain around it.

    Right now a big one for me is to think of all the single moms who have to be pregnant and raise their kids alone. I can't imagine being without my bf right now, and I realize I am very fortunate to have found a good guy like him. I don't know what it would be like having to support myself living in Hollywood after having to quit stripping and I know I'm very lucky I didn't have to find out. He was there to help me out and wanted to start a family with me.
    There are so many broken homes out there...

    I feel fortunate when I see people tripping over themselves and/or selling their souls just to have expensive brand name stuff as a status symbol. You know, those people who think their whole purpose in life is to make money yet they don't really enjoy life because they are too worried about what people might be saying about their out-of-fashion clothes or their car. They always have to have the newest thing, the bigger and better thing. So they becomes slaves to the system. I feel sorry for people who are so materialistic that they fall apart when confronted with any real situation involving humanity.

  15. #15
    Banned Madcap's Avatar
    Joined
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Saint effing Louis
    Posts
    6,804
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts

    Default Re: Whenever you have a hard day...

    I think of Stephen King, or George R. R. Martin, or Frank Herbert. There really is no refuge for me in the real world so i read.

    But i'm working on that. I may just free myself from desk-purgatory by the end of the week. Maybe.

  16. #16
    Featured Member pinkpvc's Avatar
    Joined
    Sep 2006
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    1,012
    Thanks
    130
    Thanked 252 Times in 117 Posts
    My Mood
    Angelic

    Default Re: Whenever you have a hard day...

    What inspired me to stick in and really make a go of uni was when i was leaving the uni for the night and there was this woman at the bus stop. After a short time she dropped something on the floor and i picked it up for her, it was a small baby food bottle but it had been filled with milk. She thanked me and started chatting with me.
    She had started training as a nurse in China, but because her family were farmers and were really struggling for money she came over here to work. But she couldn't afford the tuition fee's to continue her studies (she told me she had always wanted to be a scientist but nursing was the easiest way she could earn some money). Instead she was working as a cleaner in the uni hospital. She told me she was taking the milk home as she sent every spare penny she made back to her family in China.
    Oh how guilty i felt. Whenever i'm having a tough day and thinking of chucking it, i just think of how badly that woman would want to be in my position.

  17. #17
    God/dess Bella21's Avatar
    Joined
    Sep 2003
    Location
    SoCal
    Posts
    7,772
    Thanks
    2
    Thanked 40 Times in 35 Posts

    Default Re: Whenever you have a hard day...

    I guess I'm selfish... I think of myself and worse things that I have gone through and remind myself that this too shall pass.

    However, when I look at pictures my friend took in Cambodia last year, I'm reminded how good my life really is (whether I'm having a bad day or not).
    If you think school is hard, try being stupid.

  18. #18
    Featured Member sexy_celeste's Avatar
    Joined
    Apr 2005
    Location
    Melbourne Vic, Perth WA
    Posts
    1,190
    Thanks
    306
    Thanked 108 Times in 71 Posts

    Default Re: Whenever you have a hard day...

    I think of a woman, widowed after only 5 years of marriage. With a toddler and another on the way, who ended up being a sickly baby, and eventually they found out she was disabled.
    This womans bank accounts were frozen when her husband died. His mother came around before they had even recovered his body and demanded the $3000 she had loaned him for the house deposit WITH INTEREST!

    With no income, or way to access her bank accounts until a death certificate is issued she is in deep shit.

    She nearly loses her house and her children, the oldest one gets passed on to her parents so she can partially cope with the disabled baby, and grows up closer to her aunty who is only a few years older than her, than her younger sister.
    She doesnt eat until she can ask for support from the church, who gave food packages to help out.

    All the time the toddler keeps asking for Daddy, and doesnt understand why he wont come home.

    When she finally received a life insurance payout she gets glandular fever, and is seriously ill for the best part of 10 years.

    The only support she receives is $200 a month for caring full time for her disabled child. She was widowed too young to receive a pension. Oh and the welfare agencies hassle her for the next 16 years wanting to know why her (deceased) husband isnt paying maintainance and sharing in the care for the disabled child. This brings back the pain of losing her husband, but she hides it and continues to raise her girls alone.

    Her youngest child need full time care. The oldest is extremely advanced and has problems at school, troublemaking cos she is bored.

    She continues to care for these children the best she can. She starts housecleaning when the girls are both at school. She works so hard to make ends meet, and still be there for the girls when they need her. One child will need constant care for the rest of her life, and this woman doesnt complain, she does continues to do the best she can.

    The other grows up well, but ends up having problems which she cant talk about with her mum, for fear of adding to the burdens.

    This woman fought so hard, and struggled to survive, and all this was in "the lucky country" thankfully not in a third world country. She keeps going every day, doing the best she can with a disabled child and a limited income.

    And she did a good job, still does a good job of being my mum.

    So when I think that I have it hard, I remember the days when we didnt eat. The times I had to care for my sister cos mum was just too sick. I think about how she felt. How she never complained. And it broke my mums heart to have to raise her girls in such conditions, but she had it a lot harder than I hope I ever do.
    Theres no sense crying over every mistake,
    you just keep on trying till you run out of cake

  19. #19
    Featured Member AznExtasy's Avatar
    Joined
    Aug 2006
    Posts
    1,880
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked 33 Times in 23 Posts

    Default Re: Whenever you have a hard day...

    Damn, life is hard! Makes me so grateful for what I have but I feel so sad at the same time!!!

Similar Threads

  1. Replies: 14
    Last Post: 04-11-2010, 01:54 AM
  2. National Call in Sick Day/ Boycott the pump day
    By Gemini_Syn in forum The Lounge
    Replies: 35
    Last Post: 05-26-2008, 10:32 AM
  3. Time of day or day of the week for anxiety?
    By Chicagoeditor in forum The Lounge
    Replies: 8
    Last Post: 09-22-2007, 04:32 PM
  4. Money on Father's day (day and night shift)
    By suzieK in forum Stripping (was Stripping General)
    Replies: 21
    Last Post: 06-19-2006, 05:14 PM
  5. female dancers'day to day appearance
    By anabolic in forum The Lounge
    Replies: 32
    Last Post: 05-13-2003, 04:09 AM

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •