Fulfilled by our friends at ZOX

Story

It's funny how some things appear in your life at the perfect timing. I mean, I think everything happens at a specific time for a specific purpose, but we don't always recognize it. This ZOX, for me, is releasing at just the right time. I've had a lot of hard things happen in my life lately. Things that make me just want to crawl into bed and ignore the world for the foreseeable future, but there's a little voice in my head telling me that's not the solution.

In my position here at ZOX, it feels like I have to be constantly smiling, and encouraging others to look for positivity in the darkness, but I have to remind myself that that isn't realistic. When I had my first interview for this job, I remember having a conversation with Jason about toxic positivity and how a lot of people ignore talking about negative things because they want to come across as happy and unmovable, no matter what's going on, but that's just not how the world works. A lot of the time, especially when you're working through something, it's really important to face and talk about the bad stuff. The difficult times shape the better days and make us more grateful for them.

That's the beauty that I see in this ZOX and its message. Moving forward, taking small steps in your healing journey doesn't mean that you have to forget everything bad that's happened. In fact, you shouldn't. Instead, you should channel those emotions into your motivation to keep going. To look forward to the day when the loud voices of sadness or anger become a whisper; background noise that doesn't even register because you're so focused on the good things that are happening around you.

I don't know what you're going through right now, and I won't pretend to know, but I know where I'm at, and if we're in the same spot, I hope this ZOX encourages you as it has for me to take those steps forward. The rain eventually ends – just keep looking for sunshine.

Be bold,

Landri

Artist

Kelsey Cretcher