GET BACK UP

My tender and fragile EGO had been battered and bruised and hurt. Boo-hoo to me.

I’d tried. And failed. Tripped up. Fallen down.

I stayed on the ground for a while, unable to forgive myself.  You can’t fall any further down when you’re face-planted on a concrete floor — the ultimate safety net.

Here’s the thing: I didn’t want to take up full-time residency there. First of all, the view wasn’t great. And it was cold and damp and lonely in the basement.

It took a while to get to a sitting position. And more than a few collective breaths to stop that sucking for air reflex that comes with a hard angry cry.

It had been a long day, and longer night.

Throwing some shit around, letting out a few primitive howls didn’t make me feel any better…okay, that’s a lie. It made be feel a little better. Being a practical gal, I looked around and thought: Who’s going to clean up the mess? Yeah, me.

Finally I asked for a glass of water. And it was granted.

I phoned a friend, who listened, and said nothing. 

I said a prayer.

Not ONE prayer. More like a continuous chorus of “please help me, please help me, please help me.”

I prayed for 1. forgiveness and 2. guidance. Although I wasn’t sure if I was worthy of either one.

And then the little voice, the one that begged to have me stop the nonsense and listen, said, and quite clearly: “Put a freakin’ Band-Aid on your boo-boo, my dear…then, GET THE HELL UP!”

A sick husband, hungry children and a dog that needed to pee, were good incentives to brush off the woe-is-me-today attitude. They needed me, and I desperately needed them.

That was my story from “many moons ago”, as Dad liked to say.

The back burner history, that if you don’t deal with it or push past it, continues its slow simmer.  If you get lucky, before your world totally burns to the ground, the smoke alarm goes off. Then, you get to grab the most important people, run, and save yourself.

We hate to fall. And fail. And crash. And burn. News flash: that’s never going to stop happening as long as we keep trying to do things and engage with people.

Having failures and singes should be the wake-up call not make us curl in ball and cry foul.

Get up. Take chances and dream big, despite the possibility of failure. Do EPIC SHIT you guys. When we avoid doing stuff because we’re afraid that it might not work out the way we hope, we lose big. And when we strangle our hopes and dreams, the world around us loses, too.

The BAD NEWS: When you fail and fall again and again? No lie, you’ll feel the sting. You’ll suffer cuts and bruises for sure.

The GOOD NEWS: Over time your skin gets thicker. And it gets easier and easier to get up.

In the meantime, make sure there are fresh batteries in your smoke alarm. And go get yourself a big box of Band-Aids.

BE F-G AWESOME TODAY!

Original graphic and quote: Stephanie DelTorchio

Photo: Personal photo (yep, back  of my head). Used PRISMA app on my phone to make it “artsy” and then a few filters in CANVA.

[The picture in this post is interesting…The hubs took it for me. I stood on a kiddie’s stool to have this large metal medallion as a backdrop. It’s when I downloaded the picture that I noticed the “crown” effect around my head. If you haven’t seen the movie, Miss Congeniality, there’s a scene where Candice Bergen stands up and her head is framed, by a crown.]

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save