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Tuesday, May 3, 2016

WHEN LIFE KNOCKS YOU DOWN_IWSG Post



The lab results that shook you to the core.  

The harsh retort that cost you a relationship.  

The needed car repair that costs more than you have.

Life has a way of continually knocking you to the ground without warning.  

Sometimes you don't know if you have it within you to get up one more time.

You don't have to continually get up.  

You just have to get up one more time 
than they knock you down.

And that means adapting to the present, thinking outside of our usual responses to stress.

We have been brought low by the myth of HAPPILY EVER AFTER.  

There is no such thing.


Our endless and impossible journey toward home is in fact our home. 

There is beauty, laughter, and friendship along our journey, 

but if we focus on the maybe happiness of a future with goal won, we will lose today ...

 We will have lost priceless treasures existing in our Now by the searching for Tomorrow's  fool's gold. 



The hidden thing about crossroads 

is that we never know we are at one until we have made our decision and are reaping the consequences.

Sometimes the way ahead is not clear.

Yet "Impossible" just gives birth to legends. 

* When I was abandoned at six on Skid Row in Detroit, 

* When my home burned to the ground with no insurance, 

* When the love of my life died in surgery, 

* When my whole city was forcibly evacuated from our homes --

 I hit bottom all those times.

Bottom gives us a place to stand, to rise, to reflect upon what is left ... 

to perhaps see a new path to old goals or hidden roads to new ones.

Wilde wrote that insanity was trying the same things repeatedly and expecting different results. 

We must take different steps to reach new destinations.

Each blow, each wound, each set-back has a lesson for us if we but stand back and reflect. 

Those things have shaped us and surviving them has made us stronger, wiser.

There is beauty, there is humor, there is hope ... 

perhaps those are the only lights in Man's dark world. 

In tragedy and in despair, 

when an endless night seems to have fallen, hope can be found in the realization that the companion of night is not another night, 

that the companion of night is day, that darkness always gives way to light, 

and that death rules only half of creation, life the other half.

That is the great thing about life: 
  
Though it is often cruel, it is also mysterious, 

filled with wonder and surprise; 

sometimes the surprises are so amazing that they qualify as miracles,  

and by witnessing those miracles, a shattered person can sometimes discover a reason to live.

Often I am scared down to the marrow of my bones, 

but I keep telling myself that as long as I have laughter, I am not without hope.

In my blog, I always try to find something to laugh about.  

May laughter be our companion today, leading us to a new goal or the realization of an old one.

36 comments:

  1. Laughter (and beauty) are gifts. And sometimes it is sheer bloody mindedness which keeps me going.
    'I get knocked down, but I get up again,
    You ain't ever going to keep me down...'

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  2. There are many times when something is so absurdly bad it is funny. We have to bear that in mind.

    @Kathleen01930
    Kathleen Valentine's Blog

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    1. Sometimes we just have to laugh at the situation we are in, it is so grotesque and grim. Other times we have to tell ourselves that spring will come no matter how harsh the winter.

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  3. Very inspirational. Thanks for that.

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  4. Hi Roland ... laughter is essential - being positive or at least calm infront of another unforgiving problem .. they do knock when we're down ... I try and have a few choices (if that's possible) to move on - I was lucky - the choices are there ... not easy to find perhaps.

    I'm amazed and admire you for driving your way through the darkness, the bitter darkness - but your words give us all hope .. and we learn from them.

    All the best - Hilary

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    1. When you have no other choice but to go forward, it makes it easier to take that next step! :-)

      May hope and laughter always be yours.

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  5. I try to make a habit of finding something of worth out of every bad experience. Sometimes that is only that I have learned a lesson of life. I know I can be strong for others but being strong for one's self is much harder.

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    1. Life certainly charges steep tuition, doesn't it? But you are right: sometimes it is easier to be strong for others, yet so hard when we find ourselves alone.

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  6. Our journey is our home. I like that. It's so true. And if we're not enjoying the journey, then there is something wrong.

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    1. Exactly. If we only think we will live when we achieve our goals, then most of our lives will be unlived potential. :-)

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  7. That's the trick. Be happy now. Where you are. It's the journey, not the destination.

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    1. That's it. No one is promised tomorrow, so make the most of the riches of today, right?

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  8. The good part is when we hit bottom, there's no place to go but up.

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    1. You know there are times when the bottom seems to bottom out under me! I had just thought it had been bad before. :-)

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  9. Can't disagree with any of that. I decided a long time ago that life is not a rehearsal and I've tried to live the life I want to live ever since... and enjoy the journey - and accept the knocks along the way.

    Susan A Eames at
    Travel, Fiction and Photos


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    1. Yes, no dress rehearsals to life ... and no stunt doubles either, darn it! :-)

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  10. "Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home." Matsuo Basho.

    Your post reminded me of this line.

    A sense of humour always helps when the knocks come, one must somehow hang on to it.

    Best,
    Nilanjana.

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    1. Matsuo Basho. I will look him up. :-)

      Yes, in life, laughter is one of our greatest assets.

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  11. Thanks, Roland. I lost my best friend this week. I'm not so much sad as empty. Your inspirational words are most appreciated.

    VR Barkowski

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    1. I know about your best bud leaving your side but not your heart. Gypsy dying tore a piece from my heart. I wish words would ease your pain but they cannot. Know that we are blessed by their companionship, made better by their example of unconditional love, and try to be like them. I wish you peace and healing. Always your friend, Roland

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  12. You good sir are as good a companion as a belly laugh. Thank you so much for this post today. You cannot imagine how much I needed it. I know that I keep saying this, but I simply must make the time to come by your space more often, because I am absolutely and positively always uplifted.

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    1. Thanks, farawayeyes. Your comment made my weary evening so much better. Please drop by more often. -)

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  13. The bottom does give a footing and a place to shove off from. I hate hitting it, but I love looking back and seeing that I was able to rebound. Like the others here, I needed to read about hitting bottom and facing the impossible.

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    1. Sometimes when we assail the imposssible, we discover it was possible after all. :-)

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  14. Well said, Roland. I hadn't known about some of the traumas you've endured. Life is full of pain and beauty.

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    1. Everyone we meet is fighting a battle no one knows about. Life is precious because it is so fleeting.:-)

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  15. Roland, I hope these are not all from your personal experience. In life we need to be overcomers and that is how I judge people. Not from their expensive toys but what obstacles have they had to overcome.

    May 2016 IWSG Co-Host
    May the 4th Be With You
    Stephen Tremp’s Breakthrough Blogs

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    1. Those and more but I did not want to sing the blues to so many others who have endured harsh times as well. We should judge a person, not from the heights they have attained, but from the depths from which they have climbed. :-)

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  16. Lovely inspiration with my morning coffee today. Laughter is so important, especially in the dark times.

    Cheers - Ellen

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    1. Laughter is important -- that's why I look in the mirror so often -- I never run out of something to laugh at!

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  17. Thanks for mentioning this post in your current one or I would have missed it. I love this, your words are so right on, so meaningful, so beautiful. Life is indeed full of wonder and surprises. I know this post must have helped someone. Thanks, Roland.

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    1. I am so happy that you liked this post, Inger. I tried to give a wind of support to my friends, for we all will be hit by life in our journey. Thank you for being my friend!

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  18. Thank you for the gift of your experience and the magic in your words. Happy IWSG day!

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    1. Christina, thank you for your gracious words. May each of your days be special ones. :-)

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