When the World Kicks You. In the Face.

Sometimes life is going to kick you in the face.
I mean. Like literally scissor kick you right in the face.
You will just be walking along thinking all is well. It will be a sunny, beautiful day in which you think you've got it all together... Then bam. A size 17 Nike sneaker to the face. (Because I like to think the world wears Nike's)

When this happens, we have a few choices.
1. Lay there on the ground wallowing in our own self pity.
2. Create a strategic plan in which we get even with the world.
3. Overevaluate why we were kicked in the first place.
4. Become scared & withdrawn to protect ourselves from being kicked again.
5. Pull ourselves together, dust ourselves off & keep on moving.

I know that I wish that I could say that I always pick option #5. It's the most rational and probably the most healthy. But I know that I cannot say (with a clear conscience) that #5 is the one I regularly choose.

I know everyone has their own ways to cope with the world's kicks. Me. I try to run from them. I avoid the problem until it's so big I physically can't handle it. Is this healthy? Of course not! But I do it. Do you ever notice how the world likes to kick you when you're down? Like when you're already incredibly stressed out and worried and nothing seems to be going your way some day... THAT'S when you find out that your ex is seeing somebody new?
Or when you've already failed a final, lost your wallet & fell down the stairs at school... THAT'S when your car won't seem to crank.
I mean, right now, I am sure you've got your own series of problems that are running through your mind.
Because problems always seem to come in a series. The world kicks you... You try to block the blows... But eventually you just surrender to the punches. I mean, what else could it do, right?

Robert Louis Stevenson said this:
"Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits."

Really think about this. If you succeeded in everything you did, where would you go from there? Have you ever met a person that succeeded in everything they did? I didn't think so. I haven't either.
We're all on the same playing field. We're all failing. Over and over again. I know the world is kicking me in the teeth... But it also kicks Donald Trump in the teeth. & Bill Gates & Natalie Grant & Halle Berry & Katy Perry & my pastor & my best friend & my ex boyfriend. I can look at everyone else's life... and no matter how it may look from the outside... I know that they are failing just like me.

There's peace in that. Life is not about what happens to us. It's about how we react to what's happened to us. I want to choose postivity. I want to choose happiness. I want to choose joy. I want to choose prayer. Oh my, this is not always simple. But it's beautiful. There is nothing more beautiful that someone that chooses to rise from the ashes & make something new and powerful from what was broken.

My very favorite quote is by Robert Frost.
"In three words, I can sum up everything I know about life: it goes on."
I hope you know that. I hope I can learn that.
The world is going to kick you. Life is going to hurt. But it always goes on.