Now, nearing 2016 is the time to start counting your blessings, no matter hard your year was there is always that side to everything that brought you some good. There is that balance in life that keeps us looking up when everything seemed to go down in shambles. Chaos is part of life and somehow this helps us find a balance.

Even if you don’t see it at the time, you will find that whatever happened, something else brought some peace, calm or joy.

Make a list, mental if you please, before the year ends, and try to find that brighter side that balanced it out. Of course, if there was a loss, it may seem like nothing ever could balance that, but we can find specks of light that made those times easier, like friendship, the support of your family, your job, meeting new people that made those dark days lighter.

We carry each other along in trying times so we can move on and not lose hope. I urge you to make that list before the year ends, even a mental one, so that at least you can see that when you thought you wouldn’t make it, you did, thanks to that balance and that this will keep happening and this will be your “hope.”