Challenges...

Damn cube!

How many hours were spent trying in vain to take those six panels and realign the colors?

What is really crazy is that it wasn't just me or a few people, but in 1980 it overtook our stores.  By 1982 it was a phenomenon of FRUSTRATION that still irks me today.  

No, I never solved it.

And I have no desire to try!

But the lesson is simple though.

Some things are like that.  In life there are puzzles that just look to be too big a challenge.  But there are ALWAYS solutions.

The challenges we face may look clean like that cube before all the colors are mixed and tossed into disarray.  But isn't that the way life presents itself at times?

Sometimes we have to find the will - the character to continue to turn the cube.  To take life as it's thrown at us and continue to seek the solution.  

It is no easy task.  In relationships.  In our work.  In our own personal struggles.

But to finally reach that place where you have completed it.  You've finished the challenge and come out a sucess.  Well old Dr. Rubik would be proud!

the FINISH LINE...

It's a build to the very end.  

5k

10k

13.1

26.2

It's a steady push or even a sprint that concludes the physical gauntlet that is as much a mental challenge as a body pushed to the max.

You see it in the distance, but with each step it comes closer.

With each pace of heart and muscle the completion is evident.

Breathe...

Push...

Never - - - - - - - - - - - - Give - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Up!!


But what if at the very end - right before crossing the line - you stopped.  Just stopped and turned around.  Breathed.  Looked back.

The moments that led up to being in front of that banner all seem so short.  But they came over miles.  Over months of training.  Strenuous labor to be better - to succeed.

Just a second to soak on the personal victory!

No, I don't really expect a runner to do that, but in our life, shouldn't we take those moments.  Not just looking to the finish, but seeing ALL that brought us to where we're at.

Then PUSH....

and FINISH!

No Hesitation

Scared...

Unsure...

Frightened...

Those three words have defined a large portion of my life.  They came on, not as a child that is afraid of the dark or nightmares, but through serious events that were left dormant for years.  Scars that I still see slowly fading today.  They were part of my reality and kept me from realizing all that was available in this life.

That changed in 2006.  Was given some serious tools to start dismantling the words above. 

Scared became Searching.

Unsure, enlightened.

Frightened became Hopeful...

But to even begin this process took stripping everything down once again to the basics. 

Life went from living in those three words of long ago into the Enlightened Search for Hope.  I went on that journey.  I had to change some perceptions that had haunted me for most of my life.  I had to basically begin again.

Beginning again isn't hard when you really have nothing.  Physical possessions - few.  Emotional attachments - few.  I ended up leaving a really hard relationship - walking away from more than I had to if I'd wanted a fight.  Just to get a fresh start.

But this time without letting ANYONE other than myself guide this process.  I didn't want to be influenced by anyone other than my own conscious.  Without Hesitation find MY OWN WAY!!

This is what I've always desired.  To be the author of my life - the one who writes the pages and gets to decide which turns I'll make. 

So even tonight, as I'm struggling with some of the Demons that haunt, I am not willing to give in fully.  Instead I'm up - writing them out - like I always do.