Getting Back Up

Jack and Jill by Jessie Willcox Smith

"Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

The American songwriter/singer, Ben Harper said, “If I fall, I fall. I'll rise up like anybody else.” Each of us is going to have those times when life has knocked us down to the ground. The hill we were climbing causes us to slip and tumble back to the bottom. Think of the old children’s nursery rhyme, “Jack and Jill went up the hill, to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown, and Jill came tumbling after.”

The rhyme says that Jack got up and ran home. But my version says, “Jack got up, and dusted off, determined to go on. Back up the hill, along with Jill, to catch the rising sun.” A way of saying, “keep pursuing your dreams.” The only thing that can keep you from pushing forward is YOU. When YOU fall, it is YOU that determines if YOU will get back up.

Your Own Understanding of who YOU are will make the decision of getting back up either easy or hard. By having a positive attitude, it is more likely that you will bounce back up and try again. If you are a negative person, chances are you will stay stretched out on the ground.

All of this isn’t to say that there no difficult challenges to face. I have been through some of those challenges. The process of getting back up and battling through those challenges is not an easy task. But overcoming the challenges was an even greater reward.

Your life will be greater and you will get to see the sunrise in the morning, (aka, your dreams fulfilled). So get up and start heading back up that hill. There is water to fetch, seeds to plant and dreams to harvest.

Top of the Hill

Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down and broke his crown,
And Jill came tumbling after.
Up Jack got, and home did trot,
As fast as he could caper,
To old Dame Dob, who patched his nob
With vinegar and brown paper.

The nursery rhyme above is a popular one, told time and time again to small children for hundreds of years. I always wondered if Jack or even Jill for that matter ever made it to the top of the hill.

It is never all that easy to make it up the hill in our own life. There could be 1070 steps to take, maybe even a slippery path that slows us down. But do we keep trying to reach the top?

For me, I like to think that both Jack and Jill eventually made it up that hill. From there they could see great and wide views of the life they have. I would imagine it to be quite a stunning picture that they see.

Each of us have our own hill or hills to climb. And from time to time we are going to fall back down and break our crown. And each of those times, you are going to get back to your feet and start back up the hill. You're going to make it eventually. You're going to see wondrous things. You're going to be on top of that hill.

Keep trying, keep climbing, never give up.

One Small Step

"Sometimes its the numerous little steps we take that move us further then the giant leap." ~Joseph Primm

We grab hold of a vision or dream in our life. The power of it becomes so strong that we fly out the door in pursuit of it. We run to the highest hill and scan the horizon in search for a direction. As we turn, far off in the distance, maybe to the north or possibly to the west, there it is.

Even though it looks so small, it feels as though we could reach out and touch it. Or with one large leap, we could step over the valley and stand right next to it. It is in the valley where the hard work, the setbacks and those naysayers await you. It is those things we may want to skip past.

So we stand there trying to figure out a way to reach our goal in one giant step. We may even try to make a running jump from the hilltop only to find that gravity (also known as life) takes over. You tumble down the hillside and find yourself not at all where you wanted to be.

You dust yourself off at this point. But don't head back up the hill to reconsider or try jumping again. Dust yourself off and just start walking towards the dream.

Reaching the dream requires that you live the journey; living each step along the way. The good and the bad will happen but each can thrill you and also weigh upon you. Each and every small step adds to your life while placing you closer to the dream.

With many small steps you will eventually find yourself standing next to what was once a dream. You will be standing next to the reality of your vision. You will be standing high upon a new and higher hill. From there you will be able to look back across the valley to where you once were.

And standing high upon this new hill, you will scan the horizon for your next dream. And from that high hill you will be able to see that next dream.  And from that high hill you will begin putting those small steps together again.