Putting One Foot in Front of the Other

Sometimes, when we go balls to the wall, we get hurt.

My son learned this lesson yesterday in expressing his excitement over a cute dog while practicing his walking skills - he propelled himself full force forward and sadly fell face down on the concrete. It clearly hurt, and when the blood started coming out of his nose I was horrified. My heart sunk. I literally had my son's blood on my hands.

But after cleaning him up and distracting him with a little vanilla ice cream he was over it. Quicker than I was. And as the day went on and his nose got more and more bruised and purpley I was reminded over and over of how fragile he is, and how resilient. This morning he woke up with big scrapes that have already started to scab over, and he clearly is feeling great and ready to enjoy a new day of adventures. I am left however with another reminder of life's hard lessons.

Living balls to the wall means that sometimes we fall. Sometimes we get hurt. And our real strength is in how we approach every moment after the fall. Do we feel the pain, recover and start anew? Or are we afraid to ever walk again? Do we continue to take steps forward and let the wound scab over or do we let injury and pain stop us in our tracks?

This past year there were many balls to the wall moments in my life. And there were occasions when this resulted in hurt. Inevitably. There has been financial bruising, physical challenges, emotional pain, scabbing and healing. There have also been times when I was stopped in my tracks. Looking at my son's scraped and scabby nose I am reminded that one of the hardest things to do as an adult is simply figuring out how to keep putting one foot in front of the other. And keep moving forward.