GET UP

The world is a scary place, right now. 

We feel the collective loss of humanity all around us through natural – and unnatural causes. Suicide and drug abuse is epidemic. Mother nature is thoroughly pissed off. 

I know many young mothers who are anxious and afraid to raise their babies in a society filled with grifters & goons masked as leaders & politicians, rampant evil unmasked and unfettered. 

I am not... unaware. 

In fact, I was once an anxious young mother, myself. I remember my stomach tying in knots as I watched the attempted assassination of President Reagan while I held my five-month old baby boy on my lap. I wondered into what kind of madness I had delivered him. 

Almost 40 decades later, I am no longer anxious. 

That baby boy grew into a wonderful, caring man who has made this world a better place. As has his younger brother. 

As will your child, if you claim the promise embodied in those sweet little nuggets from God: the hope of a brighter tomorrow. 

But brighter tomorrows do not come without a fight. Roundhouse gut kicks and jaw shattering sucker punch kind of fights. 

So you learn. You learn to take those punches and roll with them. Except when you can't. When the punches come so fast and so hard that you can't catch your breath, you can only lie flat on the mat and watch stars spin around your head while the ref begins a slow count to ten... 

Those are the times you will be tempted to close your eyes and never move again. Ever. Those are the times when rising from the mat becomes a choice. Your choice. 

Just know that if you choose to stay down, the consequences will affect each of us like ripples of water from a drop of rain. We will be left with empty years of unfulfilled promise... love unwrapped... hearts bereft of inspiration. 

I hope you will always choose to do the HARD THING. I hope you will choose to GET UP, wipe the sweat off your forehead and the snot from your nose (yes, you got the snot beat out of you), get up and get back to your corner. 

That's where your people are: IN YOUR CORNER. They are there, waiting for you. They have band-aids to stop the bleeding and ice to help the swelling. They will help you decide what to do NEXT. 

Not 40 years down the road, but RIGHT NOW. That's all you need to decide. THIS MOMENT. And soon – in a flash, really - those moments turn into hours and days and months and decades. Decades that you look back on with wonder that you survived. But you did. You survived Every.Dang.Thing. 

Even though you have scars on your chin and knobs on your knuckles... even though your ears are shaped like cauliflower and they won't stop ringing, it doesn't matter. All that matters is that you're still here. 

And you've learned The Secret: You are not in control. You never were. 

All you own are your choices. Kindness. Love. Hate. Division. You are free to choose, though bound by the consequences of your choices. 

If you never learn The Secret, the consequences will be devastating... and not just for you. We will feel your pain in our hearts. 

I am heartbroken for every troubled teenager who chooses destruction and changes the course of their life. 

And that friend... the one who was once the life of the party, but is now a tortured alcoholic / addict? My heart hurts for them. 

Bad choices are universally painful, while those who choose wisely encircle us with inspiration. 

Like the beautiful lady with cancer who chooses to keep dancing... 

Or that precious soul who works with disadvantaged kids while her own son sits in prison... 

The amazing grandpa who has been wheelchair bound for years, but refuses to be disabled. 

They got up from the mat and chose to make a difference for themselves. For all of us. 

You WILL get knocked to the mat. And God will STILL be in control. 

He'll help you get up, get you back to your corner. He'll fill that corner with people who love & sustain you, who only want the best for you... black eyes and all. 

GET UP.