Out of the Ashes
To start, there is nothing here below that you might not have heard before — and should you indeed have, then this would be nothing but a further version of this timeless truth. Someday too, I pray you to top it up, this story. Carry this torch forward so no man or woman as yourself may not give up hope while there could still be some. In a world full of critics, may we keep being people of encouragement. For in this journey of life, there is the fall, the faith and most importantly, the fix.
“The Fall”
So long as you are no saint, and are made of sinews and breath and are taken through the various facets of life by life, you will most probably make the fall. Worse, or better, is how there may be a lot of them at each time point. In some times of thought, it even feels as never-ending. From micro to macro issues and stages — the fall happens at each stage. We are many things, so we may come short on many fronts; and this happens even to the best of us. We break our own hearts; we break the hearts of others. We turn up late for events, score zeros on tests, make bad jokes, take what is not ours. We let our tongues loose, we fail to show up at all. We hold on to grudges, we overspend and waste. We lie, we altogether just make mistakes — and we all need and deserve Grace.
“The Faith”
This is the faith — that we are simply as we are — Clay. Almost seems to be made with errors as a condiment and that the defining step is what we hold in our hearts and more, what we endeavor to become. The faith is how our great people gone-ahead threaded on our similar paths — falls and fixes — and we could now still call them great. The faith is how each new day is a chance to better ourselves. The faith, is how no matter how despicable we have been, in a single life the least, we are a person’s Sun. How we are not only existing to ourselves, but for others, however few, we are rising and shining, lighting up their days!
“The Fix”
So rise and shine! Today, rise and shine! Even if touched by a million failures, still rise and shine! Your greatest competition is to be better than the you of yesterday. Your greatest battle is the daily fight with failings and demons — making you into a better version. Your greatest pride then, is to be able to say at the end of each day, that “I tried”.
Put in the work, put in the sweat, for after what may look like the end of an era with your last failing — you may see a bigger picture of a seedling rising out of the ashes. Out of the ashes shall come to you, pure joy. Out of what was seemed to be lost shall come to you, bounties. It would not appear overnight — O but it will. With Consistency, Grit and Grace — it definitely will. And you will find people who will believe in you and be there for you. Never concede that there is none if you do not see them yet. For when they do show up, they will definitely show you up.
Be not without hope! In your times of adversity, be not without hope. After the clouds have cleared with their downpour of rain, the Sun will also take its place to shine. So only be patient when you go through the time, enduring it all — the consequences, the regrets, the hard-hands, the injustice, the losses, the restarts, the days-without-hope. For yet again, out of the ashes, you shall rise again! And while you go through the moments, be sure to never lose you.
If you go through it now, only be certain of this, that just as seasons and times — it shall also pass. Let the trials train you. Let the rains water you. Let the knives prune you. Let the hot suns grow you. Let the fires refine you. Out of the ashes — O dear, shall you rise and be rooted, and you shall stand tall.
In all this, there would and should be the complement of time and hard work. Keep walking. Keep running. Fall but do not wallow and wade in the dungeons! Push it. Rise again, even if you seem to have little cause to — because you are the most relevant cause you could ever pursue. It will take you broken bones to rise on your feet again — but do it all over again.
Believe!
