Project Happiness Articles — persistance

I had been desperately trying to avoid pain at all cost, perpetually searching for new stimuli to prevent me from sitting alone with my thoughts. In that moment in my garage, as I sat there fatigued, I realized that it was powerful to embrace the pain. The calm exhilaration that I felt was an effect of the physical exertion.

It occurred to me after this conversation that I’ve been building my own cathedral; engaged and working with purpose toward the bigger picture for a long time, with each and every brick a necessary part of something significant.

I think about that afternoon when we played touch football in the park, with winter fast approaching. I remember the smile on my brother’s face. How he did the best with what he had and how it was enough. How it can always be enough, if we learn to accept it.

Along the way one teenage girl who was taking a break from snowboarding asked me if I was “crazy” for doing it, so I informed her that I was healthy for doing it. One guy who was sitting with his friend trying to encourage him to continue boarding on down the mountain said to him at least he wasn’t hiking like this gal!

I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve looked back at decisions I’ve made, often the frightening or difficult ones, and had an incredible amount of gratitude wash over me. Gratefulness for that one person who had the guts to take a leap; my past self.

I have given much thought to that age-old question of how we square pegs fit through a round hole; how we fit through the opportunities before us. And what I have found along that journey is that we have three answers – and therefore three options.

It was a beautiful summer day without a cloud in the pale blue sky. I was a happy-go-lucky nine-year-old, soon to be ten, without a care in the world. 

Through the pain and utter despair, I was shedding skin like a reborn snake. I was forming new rules to live by and leaving my painful past behind.

That’s not how the world works. Nothing comes to you if you’re waiting for it. Nope. You have to get off your chair, move, and go and get it for yourself.