You’ll never thank the hard year while you’re in it. That’s fine. Thank it later.

Gratitude needs distance to work, and in the middle of a hard year there is none. From inside it the thing is simply heavy, and anybody asking you to find the upside now is really asking you to make them more comfortable. The meaning tends to arrive later, unprompted, usually while you are doing something else entirely.

For now the only job is getting through the week in front of you, and that is enough. Eat, sleep, keep one person informed about how you actually are. If somebody hands you a silver lining you cannot see yet, you are allowed to put it down.