What if My Prize Walks Away?
We all want to enjoy the fruits of our labor. We want to enjoy wearing the smaller size pants at the end of a long diet. We want to look out at our lawn and enjoy the splendor of a freshly cut lawn, and new mulch. We want to believe that at the "end" of raising our children, we will be able to watch them enjoy a life that we have worked so very hard to steer them towards.
We believe that the path that we are on is leading us somewhere better and somewhere more than where we are today. That, is what we hold on to when things are difficult and the path is rocky and we just aren't sure we can eat "one more salad." It is the hope, the prize, the results of our journey, that keeps all of us on our upwardly mobile path towards a better place.
Without this hope, we would be forced to believe that THIS, is as good as it gets. We would be forced to believe that WE could not improve ourselves and our lives. And our desire to strive for "better" would be stifled by the lack of hope. This is what gets a mother through a sleepless night, a prisoner through a life sentence and a child through middle school.
Each of us looks at that light and moves towards it with hope. We hope there is an afterlife. We hope there is a heaven. We hope we will eventually fit back into "those" jeans...which is why they are still sitting in the back of our closet. It keeps us going. It keeps us "looking forward" and it keeps us sane.
But what about when you work and work and the prize walks away right before you get your hands on it?
All that work without the glory!? All that work without being able to enjoy the fruits of your labor. To carry a child for nine months, only to have the baby pass away. To raise a child for eighteen years, only to have them die in a car accident. To work your entire life for a company and have them fire you right before you are to receive your retirement...and walk away with nothing.
How does one handle these types of HUGE, unimaginable disappointments? I have a friend that lost her child at 18 in a car accident. I don't know how she gets through a single day. I don't know how she can not feel as if the world has stopped spinning?
Perhaps it is the same as the hope you must hold on to when anything in life is "impossible." Perhaps the impossible becomes possible when you regain the realization that there will be a new path, a different path, a path with just as much hope as the one you have lost?
I have come to a place in my life where the prize is right in front of me and it may be walking away right as I am able to enjoy it. I have worked and struggled and tried for years, and the fruits of my labor are right in front of me and I may not be able to enjoy it. All this time I have held on to hope that one day I would be able to see "this" day, and POOF, it isn't my prize to accept. Was it ever my prize to begin with then?
Perhaps we need to focus on the journey? Perhaps we need to stop looking for what will come tomorrow, but instead enjoy the daily grind of work and patience. Because we may never get the prize. We may never be able to enjoy what we think will eventually be ours. And then what? Do we stop believeing that we CAN move forward?
It reminds me of people that are "hardened" by bad relationships. They put all their eggs in one emotional basket and when "it" doesn't work out, they are devastated. Then they spend years walking around being angry and not moving on to find another place of happiness.
Do we just need to not put our eggs in any baskets, and realize that it is a journey and not merely our focus on the destination, that matters. Perhaps as I move forward, I will look back on my journey and see the love and learning that I experienced while getting here. Perhaps I will stop focusing on what I may lose and instead focus on what I have gained. Perhaps I will look to be glad I was allowed the journey. If we are only to focus on the prize, the end, the outcome, we lose the beauty of the journey, and the journey is what makes our life worth living.
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We believe that the path that we are on is leading us somewhere better and somewhere more than where we are today. That, is what we hold on to when things are difficult and the path is rocky and we just aren't sure we can eat "one more salad." It is the hope, the prize, the results of our journey, that keeps all of us on our upwardly mobile path towards a better place.
Without this hope, we would be forced to believe that THIS, is as good as it gets. We would be forced to believe that WE could not improve ourselves and our lives. And our desire to strive for "better" would be stifled by the lack of hope. This is what gets a mother through a sleepless night, a prisoner through a life sentence and a child through middle school.
Each of us looks at that light and moves towards it with hope. We hope there is an afterlife. We hope there is a heaven. We hope we will eventually fit back into "those" jeans...which is why they are still sitting in the back of our closet. It keeps us going. It keeps us "looking forward" and it keeps us sane.
But what about when you work and work and the prize walks away right before you get your hands on it?
All that work without the glory!? All that work without being able to enjoy the fruits of your labor. To carry a child for nine months, only to have the baby pass away. To raise a child for eighteen years, only to have them die in a car accident. To work your entire life for a company and have them fire you right before you are to receive your retirement...and walk away with nothing.
How does one handle these types of HUGE, unimaginable disappointments? I have a friend that lost her child at 18 in a car accident. I don't know how she gets through a single day. I don't know how she can not feel as if the world has stopped spinning?
Perhaps it is the same as the hope you must hold on to when anything in life is "impossible." Perhaps the impossible becomes possible when you regain the realization that there will be a new path, a different path, a path with just as much hope as the one you have lost?
I have come to a place in my life where the prize is right in front of me and it may be walking away right as I am able to enjoy it. I have worked and struggled and tried for years, and the fruits of my labor are right in front of me and I may not be able to enjoy it. All this time I have held on to hope that one day I would be able to see "this" day, and POOF, it isn't my prize to accept. Was it ever my prize to begin with then?
Perhaps we need to focus on the journey? Perhaps we need to stop looking for what will come tomorrow, but instead enjoy the daily grind of work and patience. Because we may never get the prize. We may never be able to enjoy what we think will eventually be ours. And then what? Do we stop believeing that we CAN move forward?
It reminds me of people that are "hardened" by bad relationships. They put all their eggs in one emotional basket and when "it" doesn't work out, they are devastated. Then they spend years walking around being angry and not moving on to find another place of happiness.
Do we just need to not put our eggs in any baskets, and realize that it is a journey and not merely our focus on the destination, that matters. Perhaps as I move forward, I will look back on my journey and see the love and learning that I experienced while getting here. Perhaps I will stop focusing on what I may lose and instead focus on what I have gained. Perhaps I will look to be glad I was allowed the journey. If we are only to focus on the prize, the end, the outcome, we lose the beauty of the journey, and the journey is what makes our life worth living.
Click COMMENTS to leave a comment!!! Like what you read today? Post it to your Facebook page so everyone can read it! Click below to share!
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