April 2020 Quote: Stronger

“Things don’t get easier. You just become stronger.”

– Unknown

To those who have had it hard, I think we’ve all been there. Standing at the bottom of the mountain, wondering where did things go wrong that you would be there—–at the end of a trail and then seeing that there are more miles ahead of you. Sitting at the bottom of a well, asking yourself how did you get so low in the first place to literally hit rock bottom.

We’ve all been through hardships that tested our patience, our fears, our hopes, and happiness and in not one of those situations do I think we ever feel like we will get through them in the moment. I know for me, whenever I felt at those rock bottom moments, I couldn’t see the light. When I stood at the bottom of those mountains, I couldn’t see the other side because there was this whole obstacle in my way that stopped me. Or when I saw miles upon miles of more road that I had to travel, I couldn’t see the end in sight enough to want to keep going.

I wanted to sit there at rock bottom and wallow in the endless dark.

I wanted to lie down at the bottom of the mountain and cry in a fetal position because no way was I ever going to reach the top.

I wanted to turn back and go back to the beginning when things were easier then face the endless road ahead.

Because in moments like these, we feel hopeless, lost, and confused. How do we get to the top of the mountain? How do we pull ourselves out of the well? How do we keep going without knowing?

How?

You have to look up from where you’re standing surrounded by cold, gray rock and see the light at the top of the well.

You have to look up at the peak of the mountain and know that you were once there and that there is more to the other side.

You have to look at the road ahead and focus on what you know is the end.

And once you do that, you have to start.

You have to start pulling yourself out of that well day by day into you reach the light you saw.

You have to start stride by stride up the mountain, climbing, falling, tripping, but getting back up until you’re at the top again.

You have to take the first steps forward to what you envisioned.

Because nothing hard every came easy and if we all just let ourselves succumb to the pain, the hopelessness, we would go no where. We would be stagnant or recessive. But as people, we progress.

So when life gets hard and we find ourselves wanting to back out of what we fear or what we don’t feel like we can conquer, we need to know that things do get better and they do progress.

Progress:

To move forward

To improve

All about things getting better because that’s what happens when we take the initiative to do so.

We have to push through the hardships eventually.

And when you’re ready, do it.

Because things don’t get easier, life doesn’t get easier

You get stronger.

You get stronger in the sense that you are building yourself up everyday going after a better life than where you were. You get stronger in the sense that you pull yourself up everyday towards a life you want rather than the one you felt stuck in. You get stronger in the sense that you push yourself towards a goal you dreamed of and are taking active ways to reach it rather than turning back around out of fear.

And when you do see the light, when you reach the top of the mountain, or when you reach the end of your path, you will look back and see how much more you gained than lost from all that you have done.

So when you have another mountain on the other side, another well to crawl out of, or a longer path to take, it will prepare you to have the courage, the bravery, but most importantly the strength to climb that other mountain, to crawl out of that other well, or to keep going on your path.

You will be able to do those things because you had the strength to do it once, so you know you can do it again.

And it’s interesting how I never thought it that way before. Because when you look back on how far you’ve come, you’ll realize that the things you’ve been through were difficult in the moment, but when you find yourself on the other side, it seems like it was never hard in the first place. And it’s something I always find myself feeling in my moments of weakness. I feel like there’s this weight on my chest or this ache in my stomach that just feels like nothing will get better. It’s so hard to see past the end goal because it seems so far away, but when I get past what I feared so much, I realize how I had to have

Hope;

Hope in myself

In the situation.

And sometimes it’s hard to have that hope and sometimes it might not always work for a person, but it’s good to still have.

Hope is what gets us up that mountain because if we’ve been at the top of it, we gosh darn know we can get there again. Hope is knowing that the view is better up there. Hope is seeing that light from the bottom of the well and knowing what it’s like to live in such brightness. Hope is what gets a person climbing to reach that life and light. Hope is what makes a person step forward towards the unknown, excited at what might come.

Hope is what helps us be stronger in our moments of weakness.

Hold onto it.

Life won’t get easier,

But we do get stronger because we have all been through things that have made us just that.

And in the moment we couldn’t see that we were becoming everything we were intended to be because we were so scared of not being strong enough. Oh, but we were.

When we face more difficult things, we will have the strength to carry on through them because we braved other things.

It’s through those moments that helped us become, has helped us be empowered, and has helped us grow.

Life won’t get easier.

But we also have hope.

Hope for better days, hope for happiness, hope for life.

And as long as we have strength and hope, we are unstoppable. You are unstoppable.

So when you find yourself at the mountain, on the bottom of the well, or an endless path, I want you to pause. Look behind you at how far you’ve come. Then look above you or in front of you and how far you still have to go. Then I want you to pick up your feet, pick up that smile and go forward towards the light, towards the goal, towards the endless possibilities that await you.

Go

Lighter

Freerer

Happier

More hopeful,

but most importantly

Stronger.

Here’s to your journey today and every day 💕

As always with love,