Through the Dips
On persevering. (Sunday Reflection)
I have been thinking about what it feels like to go through things that I perceive as difficult.
Lately I've had a number of such experiences. Some have lasted months, some weeks, and some days. Sometimes I find myself just emerging from one such stretch, only to realize I’m still in the middle of another, deeper one.
Cycles within cycles.
❖
As I have matured, I have learned that most things begin and eventually end. And that my attitude towards beginnings, middles, and ends is predictably regular. I greet the new hardship with resistance. I settle into the middle with a kind of weary endurance. And when the end comes, sometimes abruptly, I find myself surprised by peace.
I know now that the get-through is real. And that once I get to the other side of it, there will be relief, growth.
We try, when we are our higher selves, to live in the moment. Yesterday is gone, and tomorrow a fiction. But it is also true that this too shall pass. Knowing this, knowing that however I feel about things today is fleeting, is sometimes the only thing I can hold on to.
Because it is on the other side of the get-through that peace and growth come to me. Knowing this provides the hope I need in the moment of difficulty.
Some of my friends know I do yoga. My partner's teacher points out that "the pose you don’t want is the pose you need." We practice yoga, in part, to learn to get through the hard part with greater equanimity.
Pushing through, persevering. Sometimes that is just where we are at, whether in the medical, emotional, financial, spiritual, or other realm. I have experienced the get-throughs in all of these spaces. If I can keep mind other, similar times, I find that, more and more, I can get through these dips.
The trick, I’m learning, is to remember. To know that I’ve made it before. And that I can again.
– from the mountain
Consider:
What am I going through today, that I know will pass?
Reading:
“I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.” — Maya Angelou
❖
“The best way out is always through.” — Robert Frost
❖
“Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” — Psalm 30:5 KJV
Thank you for reading. If this helped you today, consider subscribing or sharing it.