Stunning plumes of spray happen when the ocean crashes up against a rocky shoreline. While coming to rest on a soft, sandy beach is a lot more pleasant, we are often at our most impressive when we run up against the hard places.
When has running up against a hard place brought out the best in you?
The imagery of making a splash, like being smeared on the rocks, or like a bug splattered on the windshield, or like hitting the street after jumping off a tall building, is not lifting me up spiritually. I think this one is a clunker, as I try to think of ways to make an impressive splash I cannot think of any that are a positive image. Perhaps impressive isn’t always a good thing to be.
Really, David? I don’t see it this way. My interpretation was the idea that only when life is at its most challenging state for us, that is when we are truly ready to make drastic changes in ourselves.
I believe that desperation causes inspiration.
Personal example: I wasn’t happy with my current job, I wasn’t happy with what I was doing outside of work– I had no hobbies. I was at a point in my life that I was so UNHAPPY… Depressed and I felt completely helpless. It wasn’t until I hit this point, as some would call it, “Rock Bottom”, that I became motivated to change my perception on my life and was ready to take big steps towards living a life of passion and fulfillment.
Have a great Tuesday!
I think I understand the point. It refers to the challenges in life that either make you or break you. When you manage to succeed in spite of the deck being stacked against you and come our better than you ever expected to. We’ve all had times like that in our lives, I know I have. I’ll relate a funny one here.
My lifelong best friend called me early one Saturday morning, out of the blue, to insist that I join him to participate in a canoe race. He had found an old beat up canoe that someone threw away and he desperately wanted to participate in this race. This was back in the days when I was still a party animal and I was quite hungover at 7:00 AM on a Saturday, not to mention that I had never set foot in a canoe before. All that mattered was my best friend was asking for a favor so I immediately agreed to do this.
He showed up an hour later with something that looked like it might have been a canoe at one time along with two mismatched oars in the back of his pickup truck. I was barely awake and barely sober when we pulled out of the driveway heading for the big race. His excitement and joy made it worthwhile in spite of my aching head and upset stomach.
We drove for almost an hour to get there and when we finally arrived there were at least 50 canoes lined up already. I had no idea that some people took this sport so seriously. Most of these canoes were very nice looking and the people standing next to them were pumped and ready to race. Our little, beat up canoe looked like comic relief for a very serious drama that was about to unfold. It didn’t really bother me since I was just doing this as a favor and I’m not keen on competition sports to begin with, to say nothing of just wanting to get this over with and go back home to nurse my hangover.
As the race was ready to begin, we were given a number and took our place in the formation. My buddy put me at the front of the boat and gave me some last minute coaching on what to do. The starting pistol rang out and we ran toward the water carrying our old canoe. We hit the creek with a splash and jumped in. My friend threw me a wooden oar (he kept the plastic one) and stated shouting, “row Al, row!”. By now my adrenaline was pumping and all I could see was the tip of our canoe cutting through the water to a never ending chorus of “row Al, row!”. My oar kept pushing us downstream while he steered from the back. I’m not sure how long we were in the water but soon the finish line was in view, the official naked our time and we exited the boat to wait on the other contestants. I was just glad it was over and it was still early enough to salvage some of the day for myself. We mingled with the other racers and waited on the results. Eventually they announced the winners and to my amazement we had placed third! We were presented with a nice trophy which I insisted my buddy keep and we had a great time that morning celebrating with the others, enjoying live music and cold beer. We received a lot of praise from people who raced often and had come with every intention of winning that day. The person who was most impressed by our performance was me, since I had not even imagined what it would be like to participate in a canoe race. By the way, I haven’t been in a canoe since and that was more than 20 years ago. I learned long ago, it’s usually a good idea to end something on a high note when you can.
I just read my post and saw the typo the auto speller made. That one sentence should read ” the official MARKED our time”. That’ll teach me to not attempt writing a novel on an iPhone again. LOL!
Meeting deadlines. My years in television production were marked by constant deadlines..scripts to be written, programs to be timed, guests to be contacted, being at editing when the editor was scheduled. USed to give me migraine headaches. Today I’ve been given a deadline to make a presentation about the youth program I’d like to see happen in my small town. Too much to do! Pressure.