Day 117 of Your Year to Wellness: Don't GIve Up

The outcome is better than what you go through

When You’re Going through Hell, Keep Moving

Yesterday, I was talking to my brother from another mother, Jerry. We talked about the stresses of life and how more and more they seem to be inevitable. That’s when he gave me the wisdom I needed; “When you are going through hell,” he said, “don’t stop; keep moving.”

There is a tendency to want to give up on a goal, especially when the regular life-stuff becomes challenging. It’s hard to do a daily routine of dancing and exercise when your kid tells you that they need something early in the morning just moments before. And it seems impossible to eat right when your life demands a cookie.

Last night, I read in the book 72 Names of God, by Yehuda Berg that fulfillment often brings complacency. In other words, when things are going perfectly well, we have a tendency to forget the basics; work hard, be grateful and share what you have and have learned.

Last year when I broke my right hand, I learned to use the left. It was a difficult challenge; I dropped and spilled things and marveled at how weak the hand was compared to the right. In time, my left hand became as proficient as its broken counterpart and I was as proud as I had been when I first learned to tie my shoes. Then the inevitable happened; my right hand healed and I went back to using it, forgetting all about the left.

Did I need to break my hand to appreciate it? Do I have to have a problem with my ears to be grateful for them? The answer of course is no, and yet I keep hearing my mother’s words when she said. “You won’t miss the water until the well runs dry.”

Sometimes, life happens. It feels like hell when it does but you must keep on moving.

Today, I’d like you to do something I used to see my mother do. It made me laugh a little at the time, but now I see the value in it.

Walk around your home, job and even your car. As you do, touch the things you see daily but give little attention to. As you do, say “thank you.”

I used to watch my mother say thank you for a chair, the stove, a window. I know now that she was reflecting on the fact that when we were growing up, she barely had time to sit in a chair. When she didn’t have money to pay the gas bill, the stove would not work and if a window needed to be repaired, she had to board it up until she could afford to have it replaced.

Don’t wait to feel like you are going through hell to be grateful; do it now. But when life feels harder than normal keep moving; do it with gratitude, hard work, respect for those who have gone before you and love for those who follow.

Keep on keeping on.

Be you, be well, keep moving.

Bertice Berry, PhD.

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