Dera's Diary

Hello everyone and Merry Christmas! While I really try to be compassionate and even though empathy will forever remain an aspiration of mine, I really do think that we understand things in a different way when we go through them. Whenever I go on Instagram during celebratory times of year, there always tend to be those people who are sending love to people are struggling in that season. I always really admire messages like that because it recognises that while for a lot of us the biggest issue might be what present we get, a lot of people are struggling with much bigger things. Like I mentioned in my last post, these last few months and weeks have not been easy in anyway. But I think they’ve made me a lot more intentional about being grateful for the strong family I have and about acknowledging what I have in my hands right now while I wait on the things I really want and pray for. Patience and peace it seems, have been my major lessons from these last few months. That and the import...

Hello, Recently, I feel like my family has been going through a lot of hard stuff. Some things are inconveniences and some other things are life changing, but I think the real challenge is the way each challenge seems to come simultaneously. That has be really hard. I know that we are definitely not alone in this and that there are so many of us out here who legitimately feel like we just can't catch a break; one thing after another attacks which leads to this overriding feeling of fear, anxiety and hopelessness. I was listening to a song today and was reminded that even though gratitude does not change our situation, it changes us. When we are not getting those things that we really want at the moment or we face really difficult situations, it's very easy to enter that place of feeling like you have nothing to be grateful for, or feeling like you need to be prepared for the worst in any situation, or that you cannot rest until you map out everything that could possibly go ...

Hello everyone, This won't be an incredibly long post because I am completely exhausted... but I just wanted to come on here and express my complete joy at finally being home for Christmas, hoping that someone reading this out there can relate. This last week was emotionally stessful in many ways and I'm really glad the term ended when it did. To anyone reading this who may have had a tough week or may be completely exhausted, I just want to remind you that it won't always be as tough and busy and uncertain as it is right now. And while you are completely entitled to feel the way you feel, don't let the hard things convince you that there is not to be grateful for or excited about. God bless. Dera

Hey there, I almost forgot to post today and then it suddenly popped into my mind... Weirdly, I remembered to post when I was thinking about the relationship between light and darkness and how greatful I am for the existence they share. It might seem odd to see grateful and darkness in the same sentence, but I think it is a realistic perspective. In different seasons, we experince darkness in the form of discouragement, disappointment, fear, failure and anything else that keeps us locked up in ourselves, unable to interact fully or live freely. To pretend that that is not a part of our lives is to deny a huge part of our existence. What I love about light, however, is that there does not need to be a lot of it for it to make a difference. A little light pierces the darkness and the darkness can never overcome it. I think the hard thing is that sometimes, when we are in a dark place, we indavertently do things that keep us there. Personally, whenever I feel kind of down, I find myself...