I was born on Thanksgiving Day. So when childhood birthdays came around, I was surrounded with the smells of sugar, butter and the grand celebrations of all the colorful holidays that followed through the winter months. The opener always began in the great African American tradition with Sweet Potato Pie. While I did have the rare birthday cake, most were celebrated with sweet potato pie- candles and all. Momma would make them just for me, or so I believed. In actuality, there were eight to ten people living in the house on any given day, so she would churn those pies out in sets of four and six at a time. The house became a giant bakery.

The truth is, I could eat a whole pie myself but I didn’t appreciate being the target of all the fussing that came behind it. “Girl, is you done ate the whole pie? Leave a little. Everybody wants some...”  So, I ate in small sliver slices, making several trips to the kitchen when no one was looking. It actually tasted better than a mouth full of sweet potato mush; and with coffee in the morning- it was breakfast. I took a pie to college once. My roommate said, “Don’t you want to wrap it up and refrigerate it so it will be fresh for tomorrow?” It never occurred to me that a pie could last longer than a few hours...  

This post is from the blog I Am  Chasing Joy! Sometimes difficult experiences have no pat answers that will make them go away. This article gives things you can do when going through difficult days, weeks or years -without losing yourself. I also enjoyed reading the story of the blog's author (click here). Thanks for sharing Arlett!

Click HERE to read this great blog post, 5 Things to Focus On when Life Just Sucks!

Much of our psychological stress comes from worrying about the unknown.  Occasionally, it is important to give yourself permission to allow room for the wild card, the positive possibilities, the chance that good things might happen for no reason at all, that things will work out. This would mean that you don’t have to be the general manager of the universe. You don’t have to fix everything. It is easy to imagine all the negative things that can happen, but remember, things could also turn out just fine. Give equal time to imagining that, too. Every now and then, it’s OK to just rest and give some situations time to untangle themselves.