When I was a kid, our neighbors and friends down the road had, well, a really cool backyard. An above-ground pool, all kinds of stuff on the edge of the woods, and there was a large tree where their older kids had built a tree fort. To me, as a 5/6 year old, it seemed so massively tall and huge. I was afraid to climb up into it - besides, it was like the older kid's clubhouse. But eventually, I did climb the ladder up to it - as I recall (and this might not be how it was, after almost 40 years now, my memory has faded in places) but I remember the ladder just being 2x4's nailed into the tree. It seemed like they went up 100feet and there were 100 of them. There were probably 10... it was probably 7-8 feet off the ground. But at the time... it seemed so large.
Sometimes the size of things really tricks us - our own minds really can twist things around and make things seem much larger than they are. When you're a kid, it's the physical world. As I've aged, it's been the mental world that's gotten to big for me sometimes. Sometimes I have problems that seem so large and insurmountable, that I don't face them. I hide, or I put it to the side for a while. But, eventually, I start to climb that ladder. And after some time, perspective shows me that the massive size I imagined wasn't always the case.
I've cleared some large hurdles in my life - some that most people would never have to climb. But I did them, and they don't seem so bad to me. Sometimes it's the simple things that trip me up. But in the end, I have to remind myself that I can do pretty much anything. And, often, if I fail... I'm still where I was. And I can try again.
Writing this little missive is a reminder to me of that - I can conquer most anything. I'm stronger and better than I know, and sometimes I have to throw fear off a bit and try harder than I did before.
No comments:
Post a Comment