“Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up.” -Anne Lamott
Some days the best you can do is show up. You agree to not make any big decisions about the future on these days. You are happy for busy work and the small acts of efficiency that can come from moving things around just a little bit. You carry the weight of all the things left to evaluate quietly on your back and try not to make a mess with any of it.
I can get swept up in feeling discouraged on these days. This is a slippery slope that is not worth the risk in my estimation on the days when it is best to just show up and soldier on. As much as I have long interpreted the world through my feelings I have come to rely on clear thinking on these days when I know my feeling judgments are already skewed.
It is not only courageous and brave to act on the days when nothing feels right, but helps you to see the truth of your own commitments. Over twenty years ago I painted a sign that still hangs in my office- “…commitment is healthiest not when it is without doubt, but in spite of doubt. It demonstrates a great respect for the truth that there is always more that we don’t know…” This is a good thought to keep in mind when all you can do is show up.
Woody Allen said, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” One great lesson from this positivity quest and the years that I have given to Good Clean Love is that really success is predetermined for those who refuse to quit. The sad thing about all the premature quitting that goes on around us is that the breakthrough you have been working towards might be just on the other side of where you find yourself.
Maintaining is underrated. Some days it is downright heroic.
