Challenges can bend us and challenges can break us. Sometimes it is better to break than it is to bend. Through the breaking, there is an opportunity to become something more! That is how I ended up where I am today…someone who is physically, mentally, and situationally nearly unrecognizable from the me of 4 years ago.
In 2019, I had lost myself in my business. I worked hard – very hard. Nearly every waking minute was put towards the business. When I wasn’t working in the business, I was working on the business, and I let myself get lost. Throughout the previous 4 or 5 years of this hard work, I would make little changes to my approach to keep any cracks from forming. I would bend who I was to accommodate the demands of the business.
I justified it to myself and my family. I can hear myself boldly proclaiming, “We don’t need to go on this camping trip because I need to work this weekend.” Or, “I don’t need a paycheck this week because the business needs ‘X’.” At the time, I was blind to the effects these justifications had on me and my family. I just kept bending thinking it was what needed to be done. Finally, I bent so much, I didn’t recognize who I was. I didn’t go hiking, or even walking; I didn’t go camping; I didn’t just sit in nature. I worked.
One particular afternoon in 2019, after spending all morning fighting everyone else’s battles, I walked into my office, saw my dear friend who worked with me at the time, and I broke. I felt the strain of everything rupture and sunder the me of then from the me that had been lost. As I sat there in her arms, I felt the weight of everything fall with each sob. Slowly, I began to see what I needed to do and I started making choices that took me down the path of the life I wanted.
Since that day in 2019, I had to face several more challenges and make several purposeful decisions to get to a life I truly love. Each of those challenges was a guiding moment that allowed me to work my way back to being the person I wanted to be. I started focusing on the things that were, and still are, important to me. Before long, I found myself living that life, and once again, I was back to embracing nature and allowing it to calm, focus, and enlighten my soul.
Sometimes, the force of the wind will cause a tree to bend and grow strong in the direction of the prevailing wind; and sometimes the force of the wind will cause the tree to topple and provide a sheltered patch of land where a new tree can take root and grow strong. In both instances, a tree was able to grow strong through it all.
We all face challenges in our life and it is ok to bend and it is ok to break. Oftentimes, we are forever changed because of these challenges. But facing these challenges is what makes us who we are.
Challenges are ever present in nature and these challenges have amazing impacts on the beauty of the world. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross said, “Should you shield the canyons from the windstorms you would never see the true beauty of their carvings.” The same is true for us.
Whether you bend or you break, take each challenge, grow strong through it all, and become the best you you can be.
-Shay
Be the one who cares because there is no guarantee that anyone else will.
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It take courage to admit we’ve let a situation overtake us and allow the breaking to give us the strength to discover (or rediscover) who we are. An inspirational post!