When Bad Things Happen

So, I just discovered that one of the few things I've been able to write this past semester has lost three pages of dialogue that I wrote over Thanksgiving break. I have the document and the prologue-like beginning, but all of the dialogue I had written after that prologue is missing...and it was really good dialogue as well. And now I can't find it anywhere. It's most certainly not on the document.
I have a habit, though perhaps a little too much of a subconscious habit, of saving my documents, but the only explanation I can find for the missing dialogue is that I hadn't saved it before closing Word and restarting my computer last week. In short: "this is bad. This is really really bad." It's frustrating. Upsetting. Sad. Disappointing. Discouraging.
Bad things happen to everyone all of the time. The baby fell over and banged its head. The toddler pinched its finger. The child got bullied in school. The teen suffered unrequited love. The stressed college student forgot and therefore failed a major assignment. The newlyweds discovered that they were unable to have children. The mother watched her teen rebel and leave home. The father lost his wife and children in a car accident. Your friend, behind his smile, has been having at terrible day. That quiet child in class who struggles to learn goes home to an unhappy home. The rich, arrogant girl who you tried and failed to be nice to is having a hard time figuring out who she is and who she can trust. Get my point? Even those who seem well off, with little or no difficulties in life, have hard times and have bad things happen somedays. These bad things range from slipping on ice to the death of a loved one. But no matter how insignificant or tremendous these difficulties seem, each is uniquely hard and can really affect people.
But what do we do when bad things happen? There are many things we can or can't do. Some are more healing and strengthening than others.
Thinking about it right now, I'd like to discuss two that can sometimes help:
1. Step back.

In this picture, it's cool to look at a different perspective or focus. But sometimes, when bad things happen, we tend to focus too much on a limited perspective. We forget that, if we endeavor to step back  and look at things differently, we can see a bigger picture:

Often, in examining an impressionist painting, like Monet, the paints and strokes seem muddled and messy, until we step back and try to see things from a different perspective:

Sometimes, when we focus on the messy marks made on the piece of paper in front of us, we forget to see the clean, new page waiting next to it. For example, up close, the loss of what I wrote is really discouraging and disheartening, and I lack the initiative to try rewriting it, believing that I'd only poorly write what came so naturally before. But, despite these emotions and thoughts, I can step back and try to think that, perhaps, I can start anew and write something even better that I wouldn't have been able to  write if I kept relying on the lost material.
But, in order to do this, I'd have to go against my natural inclination to give up and renounce the story. In other words, I'd have to...
2. Just keep swimming.
Even when we want to give up, sometimes the greatest moments, the greatest lessons, and the greatest joys come when we follow Dory's advice in Finding Nemo and "just keep swimming." Notice it doesn't include statements like "cheer up" or "stop being so selfish" or "man up" or "there are starving children in Africa, so what do you have to be upset about?" Many times we have to choose to be happy, and that makes the difference. But cheering up or forgetting ourselves can be the hardest part, the part we fail at some days. In those days, I second Dory--just keep swimming.

Life isn't always easy, but it is good. Even if it doesn't quite feel good today, it will be. Just take heart, step back, and keep swimming. =)