I’m about to get all philosophical on you, so forgive me in advance. I generally try to keep my hippy-roots thinking to myself, but recent events have brought all of this back into my mind. Bear with me.
Growing up I had some difficulties. I’ve alluded to them in past posts, but never really delved into any explanations. I’ll skip the details because this isn’t a pity party, just a means of helping you understand where I’m coming from. But I will say this, in my short life I’ve lost a lot that was, and still is, important to me. Either through divorce, death, relocation, or even psychological disorders I’ve lost, and still managed to lose some more. But I came through it.
I used everything that I was put through as a stepping stone to grow and mature. I knew that better things were waiting, and once the clouds went away I’d be able to see the path again. Sure I felt sorry for myself. I cried and fought just like anyone else does when stuck in a bad spot. But I never gave up hope.
In my mind the world is a constant gauntlet. The more you’re put through, the stronger you are. We’re given challenges, but only as much as we can handle. The stronger our will is, the harder our challenges may be. I don’t see this as a negative as one may assume. Instead I see it as a testament to how much I’ve learned. I can be knocked down time and time again; it doesn’t matter. In the end I’ll always pull myself back up.
Sometimes people give up. They lose the battle. It’s not because the test was too hard or they were too weak, but because they weren’t willing to try. These people get lost in the idea that the world is against them. They don’t realize that others are out there in worse spots than their own. They don’t realize that these other people are pulling through. They don’t realize that these other people will survive; not because they are better off, or stronger, or luckier, but because they never gave up hope.
What we end up with in this life has nothing to do with luck. It’s all about the positive energy that we put out into the world. Someone that just won the lottery wasn’t spending the whole week thinking, “Man, I’m never gonna win.” They were thinking, “Man, what if I did win!” Maybe you bought a lotto ticket last week and thought that same thing but didn’t win. It wasn’t your time, but I bet if you spent the whole week thinking positively about that lotto ticket and had a big smile on your face, you probably had a pretty good week.
The point is this… Everyone goes through tough times; some more than others. And when we’re at our worse is when we have the most potential. Maybe you’re currently going through something that you don’t think you can handle. But maybe, just maybe, you’re the strongest you’ve ever been because you have to deal with whatever situation you’re in. It might be bad, it might be worse than anyone knows. But as long as you have hope, as long as you don’t give up, you’ll make it through. And maybe something great will come out of it. Because everything happens for a reason, even if we can’t see it while we’re in the clouds. But that’s a different philosophy for a different day.
2 comments:
You're the kind of person that i'd like to sit next to in a bar and somehow get started on some new age hippy philosophical discussion, everything i've read here makes me think you've got a great head on those shoulders, i hang out with a painter and writer who are 26 and 27 and i like to talk to them cuz they remind me of what i must have been like at that age and it's good to have that reminder, you do the same with some of your posts, keep up the good work. The King of North Oakland.
Thanks! That's the best compliment I could get. It's always hard growing up, even for those rich sheltered types. But it's also an adventure that makes us into the adults we long to be. Every tear, every heartache, every gasp for air, is worth it if we learn from it.
I'd love to have a beer with you someday. If you're ever in Orlando... ;)
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