When Crawling is an Act of Courage

Progress and change aren't easy, and you will often get knocked down to the floor by the vagaries of life. This will happen to you again and again and again.

If you're trying to become a happier person, you'll have awesome days filled with joy and peace and light. And then you'll have a setback. You will get knocked down to the floor. Life will seem sad and terrible again, you'll be right back where you started.

This is completely normal. Progress is not a lineal curve, it is a slow and  erratic climb <a href="http://erikschimek.com/2013/11/08/you-are-infinite/">towards the infinite</a>.

Change is difficult. It will require strength, bravery and hope.

Sometimes the hardest thing you can do is pick yourself up off the floor, and crawl a few inches.

Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is to is pick yourself up off the floor and crawl, after you've gotten knocked down for the fifteenth time in a row.

Sometimes the most amazing thing you can do is open your heart up to hope, and keep crawling and crawling and crawling, until you look back at your progress in the rear view mirror and realize how far you've come. And that what you now consider 'crawling' and 'a bad day' would have been THE BEST DAY EVER if if happened to you just a few months ago.

The moral arc of the universe does not bend towards justice or fairness, but it does brim with potential.

It is our task in this life to embrace that potential, to make the most of our time on Earth, and to be the most amazing person that we can be.

Even if that means crawling.

Originally written on 2013-12-09