Rising after the fall

I had some news that went against me recently. It was important in the short term, but small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. I’m still standing. I’m still alive. My health is good. It was just a disappointment that hit close to home.

We all have disappointments. We didn’t get the news we wanted. We didn’t achieve a personal milestone that we worked hard to achieve. We didn’t get the promotion or job we wanted. Instead of the little engine that could, we missed and became the little engine that got stuck in the snow or mud, spinning its wheels.

It’s life. Things happen.

Let it go, let it go

If we let it, the feeling of disappointment can be crushing. Whether we’re 15 or 85, the feeling of being the kid standing off to the side of the dance floor or the feeling of running a race and coming in last can be daunting. I remind myself that I may not like the feeling, but God, fate, karma, whatever you want to call it, has its own schedule. And its own plan.

It’s an overly used cliche, but Thomas Edison claimed that he failed 10,000 times before inventing the light bulb.

Back up again

Yes, this too shall pass, so I’m getting back up on my bike and trying again. I crashed. I fell down. So be it, there’s always another day. I’m pulling up “my britches” and I’m getting back up. I’m reminding myself that the little engine that could had a lot of failures before it achieved its goal.

“I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.”

I would love to pout and mope. I would love to stay down, but life moves on and I have to do the same thing. To steal from the 2006 movie Rocky Balboa, “You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward.”

Here’s to overcoming life’s challenges.

Film Rocky Balboa (2006)