“The Sun himself is weak when he first rises and gathers strength and courage as the day gets on.”

This quote is from the novel, The Old Curiosity Shop, by Charles Dickens (1841). It appears as three characters in the story are having a conversation. At first, the attitudes of everyone present are focused on the negatives. Therefore, their conversation is a bit sad and depressing. But in the end, their conversation becomes positive, warm, and enriching.

The words in this quote are spoken by one of the three characters to describe how their conversation had evolved to something entirely different from what it was at the beginning. Comparing their conversation to the sun, he states that even the sun is weak when it first rises. However, it gathers strength as the day progresses.

Similarly, we won’t always wake up with a “bright” positive attitude each and every day. Sometimes our strength and courage are weak. Like the characters in The Old Curiosity Shop, our strength and courage are often weakened by a negative attitude towards negative situations, which is quite natural. Being positive about the negative doesn’t come easy. But rather than focus on how we rise, let’s take a note from the sun and find hope in what can proceed after–the ability to gather strength and courage as the day goes on.