“We’ve got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen.” D. H. Lawrence
NOTE: Life is going to go on with or without us. We’re going to take hits and get knocked down. If we have the courage to rise each time we’re knocked down, we’ll become stronger, more resilient, and develop a tenaciousness that will see us through the toughest times. Rise each time you fall. You’re stronger than you realize.
Airplanes take off against the wind, salmon swim upstream, when things seem tough, you’re tougher. Toughness is built into your DNA. Never Quit.
—Bob Marley
I’m happy I didn’t see the tough times coming. When life was going well, I thought this is the way it’s supposed to be. Suddently, without warning, a storm hits, and I had no choice but to face the storm, do my best, and endure until the storm spent itself.
My guess is that you can resonate with my experience. Each of us, at different times in our lives, are buffetted by storms with gale winds. Eventually, the storm passes. When we look back over the distance we’ve traveled, we understand Bob Marley’s words, “You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.”
What was the storm you faced? How did it make you stronger? How did it give you confidence you could handle whatever life throws at you?
Stay Strong. Never Quit. Never Give Up.
I had a intuitive feeling one of my blog readers needs encouragement. I hope this small piece of encouragement helps you to stay the course until you reach your goal.
If it’s worth fighting for, you’ll find no obstacle is too great, no ocean to wide to achieve your purpose. You’ll discover a way through, around, or over. The way is there, in front of you. So what if you haven’t found it yet. Don’t quit. Fight on. What you want is waiting for you.
If you’re up against a bruiser and you’re getting knocked about —
Grin.
If you’re feeling pretty groggy, and you’re licked beyond a doubt —
Grin.
Don’t let him see you’re funking, let him know with every clout,
Though your face is battered to a pulp, your blooming heart is stout;
Just stand upon your pins until the beggar knocks you out —
And grin.
This life’s a bally battle, and the same advice holds true
Of grin.
If you’re up against it badly, then it’s only one on you,
So grin.
If the future’s black as thunder, don’t let people see you’re blue;
Just cultivate a cast-iron smile of joy the whole day through;
If they call you “Little Sunshine”, wish that THEY’D no troubles, too —
You may — grin.
Rise up in the morning with the will that, smooth or rough,
You’ll grin.
Sink to sleep at midnight, and although you’re feeling tough,
Yet grin.
There’s nothing gained by whining, and you’re not that kind of stuff;
You’re a fighter from away back, and you WON’T take a rebuff;
Your trouble is that you don’t know when you have had enough —
Don’t give in.
If Fate should down you, just get up and take another cuff;
You may bank on it that there is no philosophy like bluff,
And grin.
The tree that never had to fight
For sun and sky and air and light,
But stood out in the open plain
And always got its share of rain,
Never became a forest king
But lived and died a scrubby thing.
The man who never had to toil
To gain and farm his patch of soil,
Who never had to win his share
Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man
But lived and died as he began.
Good timber does not grow with ease,
The stronger wind, the stronger trees,
The further sky, the greater length,
The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow.
Where thickest lies the forest growth
We find the patriarchs of both.
And they hold counsel with the stars
Whose broken branches show the scars
Of many winds and much of strife.
This is the common law of life.
by Douglas Malloch
Life imposes things on you that you can’t control, but you still have the choice of how you’re going to live through this.
Celine Dion
