On Saturday night, I played a benefit concert for Habitat for Humanity.  I felt like the show was going pretty well.  About halfway through the set, I looked down and saw that the piano keys were covered with blood: the cuts on my fingers from cooking in my restaurant had opened up while I was playing.

I’ve never felt so rock and roll.

But the rest of my set was pretty bumpy.  I was already having a tough week, and seeing the bloody keys really threw me off my game. Still I held it together as best I could. Despite the circumstances, I kept going.

Reader, the past few weeks have been difficult ones, and the gruesome piano episode really drove home the point that we often have to keep going even when we’re not at our best, when we’re hurting, when we’re scared. There were people at that concert that intimidated me.  I was underdressed.  I was carrying the weight of the week’s problems on my face. And I was bleeding all over the place.

But I made it.  And you can too.

I sometimes think about the expression that it’s always darkest before the dawn, and if that’s true, I’m holding out for one hell of a dawn. If you too are having to push through the odds this week, know that you’re not alone, and that there is a lady with a pair of bloody hands out there that believes you can get through it.  I’ll see you next Monday. -Em