Life is Hard (without art)

Probably no one wants to read a set of words that start with that kind of title, right? But stay with me... it is an exercise in changing a mindset. 
Or least that's how it worked for me one day through
the course of a journal entry. I am an avid journal keeper I have 62 of them numbered so far starting from 1983, it is an excellent practice for me to get through the heart of matters whether troubling or joyous.
So while feeling blue one day I wrote this weary beginning verse and it became an affirmational song by the end.  I wanted to share it.
All of us have days of struggle and despair. This how 'I wrote my way out.' ( Just like Hamilton sings about in his spectacular play. )  

Life is  hard  

We are mowed over by its weight of
expectations unrealized, wishes ungranted.  
And the un-calculable grief for those who leave us.  
Because it's their time or their  agreement or their journey    
made from necessary choices
or because of who they are is broken and incapable of love.

Life is hard.
Because we all want so much,
and we try to believe it will all work out,
the best is yet to be,
it's happening for a reason.
There are no coincidences and
we believe in miracles
that don't reveal themselves
and trust in magic that is yet to occur.
We believe and believe yet,
Life is hard.
Because what we wanted and purchased
didn't really make us happy after all,
because who we love doesn't complete us
or doesn't care as much as we hoped.
We are lonely with ourselves and others.
We are famous and we are rich.
We are living the dream,
maybe the world revers us and we have it all
yet it only looks like that from the outside.
Life is hard because we can't see
the beauty beyond the bills,
the sacredness of every day and the simplest of acts.
That there could be life after death
and there are gifts in the time given and spent
no matter the length, the cost, the outcome.
We are so caught up in our expectations
of what we believe is the truth of our happiness,
the framework of love,
the tides of success that ebbs and flow,
we cannot bear its uncertainty.
So we must have a deep knowing that all is,
as it is.
To move with gentle grace 
and with unfaltering faith through what is presented,
chosen, created and possible
because without that deep surrender
of acceptance and witness to the beauty
in the smallest sequences and moments
that is the wonder of life,
... life is just hard.

I wish you everlasting wonder. And I believe we find that through the expression of ourselves through art.

Pam Reinke