"I can't see a way through.

Can you see your next step?

yeah,

Well, just take that."

From: The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse.

With each step, you will get closer.

You don't need to see your destination.

You just need to focus on the next step,

The goals and destination are sometimes so far away they seem intangible.

The one thing you can control is the next step.

I've started two different degrees and dropped out of both.

It was a hard-won lesson to learn, if you are living for somebody else’s validation, you are not living. It will only get harder, the ability to choose not only the next step but the journey should not be discounted.

I've been at the lowest of lows and the highest of highs, from pain and depression to elation and joy.

Sometimes I can't see a way through.
Chronic pain does tend to sap one's ability to see the joy in the world, but what I can see is the next step.

That next step doesn't hold the pain of yesterday, and it doesn't have the pain of the future.
It contains the promise of something beautiful.

The unknown, when pain is prevalent in life, the beauty of the unknown, the new bleeds intense joy into my life, it holds the possibility of feeling something bigger than just pain and the same things of yesterday.

The weight of the past and the guarantees of the future press down on my optimism sometimes.

The journey is long, but the steps are short.
Just take the next step.