Running, Crying, Never Quitting.

Do I like to run? Not really. Does it feel good when my side hurts? Nah. Do I love it when my lungs burn and my mouth is dry? Nope. Do I like it when I look up and see that stupid hill coming up? Hell no. But I do it. Only because finishing is a feeling I like. It feels good. It shows me something that I have always liked to see... The light at the end of a tunnel. The fact that no matter how much I doubted, I did it anyway. No matter how dark things get, I choose to know that I will finish what I started. And then I do it. 

Maybe it is the athlete in me. The country girl in me. The stubbornness in me. The wife. The mother. The finisher. Whatever it is, it keeps me going. I can remember feeling it when I was a little girl, even. I remember being faced with little challenges, mostly physical, in the realm of basketball, or track, or cross country, but the little hurdles were always there. And most of my friends would stop. They would doubt, and quit. I couldn't quit for some reason. I HAD to do it. I had to find a way. And if you are part of a team? Well, then you really can't quit. Letting your teammate down is not an option. Not even a thought. Because you count on each other. 

This is a frame of mind that I carry that with me. And you should too. Because you know it's there. And it helps your head make the right choice. In whatever it is you are doing. You know if you can just see it through, finish, you will feel good things. Hard things usually reap a harvest of benefits. The risk is worth the reward, all of those good sayings. They are all true. And all too often, just before we are going to be really great at something.. Right when we are on the cusp of breaking through to a new level, that's when we give up. Because you want to be great quickly and working at it gets frustrating. Push on. Break the barrier. Just beyond it is victory.

This is not to say that I am not weak. Because I am. Often. I cry my eyes out a lot. Rivers, I have cried. I break down. Some times it's all I can do to get off of my knees. That is the other part of me. I love hard. I pray hard. I fall hard. I try hard. I mess up hard. And I mess up a lot. I learn. And carry on.  I am an emotional basket case some days. Ask anyone who really knows me. I have been known to lose it and cry my head off in the check out line at Wal Mart. Ha!  Just cry, people. Cry it on out. Even if you have no idea what you are crying about. Eight times out of ten I don't know... Release it.  That is my way. Find your way. Release that mess inside of you. Then tell it you are going to have a good day in spite of it. 

There are days that will knock you down. There are days that will have you feeling on top of the world. Thus is life. You have a choice, remember. I choose to see that light. Find it somewhere. I run. I cry. But I do not quit. Take that word right out of your vocabulary, boys and girls. It does not exist. Run that race. Then run some hills after. Look at that problem you are facing and figure it out. If it seems too big, figure it out little by little. Rome wasn't built in a day. 

The point is, you CAN do it. If you quit, you are never really giving yourself a chance to get to the finish line. There is a reason you began in the first place. What ever it is.  And it wasn't just to give up, that's for sure. You don't have to win first place (although first is quite nice)... You just have to have the courage to start it and the perseverance to finish it.  






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