Seize the Day: A Mindful Guide to Fuller Living (this week’s promotional discount)

This week, until 3 January, you can purchase Seize the Day from Kevin Mayhew Ltd at a 10 per cent discount, using the code SEIZE10 when ordering the title from the company’s website. With the book normally retailing at £14.99, that’s a saving of £1.50. Just type the code into the relevant box at the online checkout between the dates given.

Here, meanwhile, is the sixth of the reflections I’ll be posting this week from the book, to run alongside this promotion.

When the clouds keep coming

Strength does not come from winning.
Your struggles develop your strengths.
When you go through hardships
and decide not to surrender,
that is strength.
Mahatma Gandhi

Stars cannot shine without darkness.
Anon

However long the night,
the dawn will break.
African Proverb

When the clouds keep coming,
dark and forbidding above you,
overshadowing all your hopes for the future,
a blanket of problems closing in from every side,
do not give up.
When the rain keeps falling,
your dreams submerged under the deluge,
life suddenly fraught with difficulty,
such that anxiety threatens to overwhelm you,
do not lose heart.
When the storm keeps raging,
everything in which you trusted seemingly swept away,
nothing and no one left to cling to,
and no escape from the tempest,
do not despair,
Though the clouds are thick,
the rain persists,
the storm worsens,
stay strong,
for the skies will one day clear,
the tumult cease.
However bleak things may seem,
even the darkest of days will finally end.
Tears will give way to laughter,
sorrow to joy,
fear to confidence,
turmoil to peace.
And when it finally comes,
the sunshine will be all the sweeter
for the trials you have endured.