Estimated Reading Time 7 Minutes
Hey You! Welcome back to The Vibrant Life Podcast. I’m Emily Romrell and it’s December Peeps. Can you believe it? I know I’m old because I’m always saying how fast the time goes, but it’s true. The last couple of years have been seriously crazy though, and I hope we all can take a pause this holiday season and just remember what is truly important.
I hope y’all had a very happy Thanksgiving and that you were able to spend some time with people you love. One thing that I know for sure about this life is that no matter how tough things are, and no matter what you are struggling with, there is always something to be thankful for. And having an attitude of gratitude is one of the truest ways to choose a happy vibrant life.
Another thing that can be a great tool in a vibrant life is The Vibrant Life Goal Planner. Now is the perfect time to order yours so you can greet the new year at your best. Check out a link for the planner in the show notes or simply visit my website emilyromrell.com.
Also, real quick. If you are enjoying this podcast please subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps so much to get the word out to more people. And don’t forget to share the podcast with your family and friends. It means a lot.
Anyway, onward and upward. I’m so excited about the topic today. I actually had this thought on the day before Thanksgiving. It’s something that’s been on my mind for the last week or so and it’s just one of those concepts that kind of grabbed hold of me and caused me to ponder deeper on things. I want to talk about The Wonder of “Eve”.
So hang in here with me. I know this might sound a little weird, but we’ll get on the same page soon. Let’s think about Christmas Eve which is coming up in a few weeks. Christmas Eve is personally my favorite night of the year. But what makes it special? It’s important because it’s the night before. What is one of the most famous holiday children’s books of all time? Twas the Night Before Christmas, right? In my family, we get so excited that we even say things like, “It’s Christmas Eve, Eve.” Or “It’s Christmas Eve, Eve, Eve.”
Now think about New Year’s Eve. The last big hurrah of the year. We party all night long celebrating our most recent trip around the sun. But while there is a lot of focus on our experiences of the last year, another big part of the holiday is the hope we have for the future and what is coming up for the next year.
I believe a big reason we love to celebrate the “Eve” of things is anticipation. There is a giant figurative question mark hanging over us that makes us wonder. The feeling of our infinite potential is almost tangible. There is a beautiful quote by Samuel Smiles that I love. (Side note: Doesn’t he have a great name, Samuel Smiles? He was a noted author and politician in Britain in the late eighteen hundreds.)
Anyway, He said, “An intense anticipation itself transforms possibility into reality; our desires being often but precursors of the things which we are capable of performing.” That is so good, I’ll say it again. “An intense anticipation itself transforms possibility into reality; our desires being often but precursors of the things which we are capable of performing.”
Magic begins with the anticipation of what could be. And that magic is felt strongly in the “Eve” of things.
Okay, now let’s look at the word “Eve” in itself. If you are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or if you are familiar with these religions, then of course you know about Adam and Eve. As a Christian, I believe that Adam and Eve were the first two people who lived on this earth and it’s because of them that we have the chance to experience this life and have our bodies and to truly learn and grow into our potential.
In the scriptures, we learn that “Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living; for thus have I, the Lord God, called the first of all women, which are many.” That’s found in Moses 4:26. If you look up the etymology of “Eve”, it says, “From the Hebrew name חַוָּה (Chawwah), which was derived from the Hebrew word חָוָה (chawah) meaning “to breathe” or the related word חָיָה (chayah) meaning “to live”.
Side note: I find that fascinating, especially the part about breath. There is so much power to be found in breathing. I learned that when I do breathing techniques it helps me calm down and manage my anxiety and depression. Breathing helps us focus and create energy. I think “create” is the key word there. Breathing means life. And life comes from Eve.
You know I think Eve gets a bad rap from most people. They think that the trouble of humanity falls on her shoulders because she convinced Adam to eat the forbidden fruit. But if you think about it, Eve understood better than even Adam that it’s impossible to appreciate the good without the bad. There has to be an opposition in all things, and Eve knew that we had to experience the hard things in life in order to reach our full potential. Personally, I think Eve was so insightful and wise, and I look up to her so much.
But the main thing that I want to emphasize here is that both Eve the person and Eve as a special occasion are about the excitement of what is to come, whether that is the birth of humanity or the birth of a new year. Again, it’s all about potential and anticipation. There is so much wonder in all of that.
Okay, thanks for being patient with me here. Now let’s just think about a normal evening or eve as they said back in the day. The sun is setting and everything gets dark. It’s the closing of the day, right. I know for me personally, nights can be pretty tough and twelve hours of darkness can feel like an eternity. Sometimes it feels like everything is ending.
It’s okay if we feel like that sometimes. One thing that I’m learning as I get older and as I’ve worked on my personal development is that feeling bad about the way we feel just makes things worse. That’s where a lot of anxiety comes from. You have a negative feeling and then you get upset that you are experiencing a negative feeling so you get anxious or depressed or angry with yourself.
Part of the story about Adam and Eve is that we have to go through trials and experience hardships in order to know the good from the evil. In Moses 5:11 is says, “And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient.” And I think we brush this fact off sometimes, that sadness and evil are a planned part of this life experience.
The Wonder of Eve however is that just when we think everything is ending, when we are in the midst of the darkest times, when the sun is setting on what we wanted or what we thought we knew, that is the time of anticipation or the time of greatest potential. It’s the night before, right? And this is just the time that is going to give birth to something wonderful if we let it. If we don’t resist the process.
This is something that can be difficult to remember and even more difficult to do. I am right there with you. If you are going through something really tough, it can seem impossible to believe that things are going to get better, not to mention that something amazing might be born out of true hardship. But all you have to do is hold on. Do not give up. Clear back in 1620 an English theologian and historian named Thomas Fuller said, “The darkest hour of the night comes just before the dawn.” I think he was on to something.
But it gives me a lot of hope to think about dark times just being the “Eve” of something wonderful. That when the sun is setting on the tender things in our hearts, that we can become partners with Heavenly Father and create something amazing. It makes it easier for me to change my thinking about my own struggles and rather than wondering why I have to go though painful experiences (which I do all the time, don’t get me wrong) but I can shift that to wondering with anticipation about what is coming next.
I think this is a really powerful concept. It’s been sinking into my heart and mind for a while now and the more I think about it, the more insight I find. That’s how it is with most life changing ideas, for me at least. There are layers to things and my understanding grows as I take the time to ponder things and wander through things in my mind.
So the challenge this week is all about mindset. What would the world be like if we were as excited about each nightfall as we are about Christmas Eve, the night before something magical. Think about it. And if you are in the middle of some painful things right now, just hold on. The night is always darkest just before the dawn.
Have a terrific week, my friends. Live The Vibrant Life!
