We're Stronger Than We Think

A little boy went to the fair with his dad and saw an inflatable clown sporting a sign that read, “Try to knock me down.” He hit it, he slapped it, he pushed it – he struck it again and again, and the harder he hit, the quicker it seemed to bounce back up. No matter how hard he tried, it just would not stay down. His father watched as the boy punched the clown until he finally interrupted and asked, "How is it possible for the clown to keep standing back up, no matter how hard you hit it?"
 
The child scratched his head and said, "Dad, I think this clown is standing up on the inside."

Did you know that each of us has the ability to stand up on the inside? Let me explain.
 
A magazine article told about a woman in rural Florida who was recuperating from a lengthy illness. She enjoyed sitting on her front porch in her wheelchair and, on this day, she watched her son repair his automobile. He raised it on blocks of wood, removed the tires and slid on his back underneath the vehicle.
 
Suddenly there was a loud crack and the automobile lurched to one side, pinning the young man underneath. She screamed for her husband who ran to assist, but he couldn’t budge the car or the young man. He climbed into his own vehicle and sped off for help.
 
The mother, who hadn’t walked in months, realized that her son’s groans were growing fainter and she knew that it would be up to her to save the boy. She sensed he was dying and that she had to act immediately.

She rose to her feet and walked on shaky legs to the car. Bracing herself, she lifted. The car rose a few inches – just enough to let the boy scramble free. Then she collapsed.
 
After a thorough examination, she was found only to have suffered strained muscles. And the incredulous doctor’s words were most telling: “I will always wonder,” he said, “how far she might have lifted that car if she had been well and strong.”
 
We’ve read similar stories about persons exhibiting almost superhuman strength in times of crises. Call it a miracle. Call it providence. Or call it a physiological response to an adrenaline surge – this mother, and others like her, found the strength she needed, when she needed it, to face the crisis at hand.
 
And so it is with all of us. When life knocks us down and it seems impossible to get back up, when life demands more from us than we are able to give, then more than ever, we need to find a way to do what needs to be done. It is at just these times that we come face to face with a reserve of strength we never knew we had.
 
We are stronger than we think. Like the clown, we, too, have the ability to bounce back. We have emotional, spiritual and even physical resources at our disposal. We may get knocked down, but we don’t have to stay down.
 
It’s like standing up on the inside. And when we find strength to do that, we will be able to stand up to most anything life throws our way.
 
-- Steve Goodier


Image courtesy of Stacia Garlach

In One Day

In Turin, Italy, an anonymous citizen wrote the tax office enclosing 10,000 Lira in the envelope and explained he had cheated on his income tax. He said it caused him to lose his appetite. Then he added, "If my appetite doesn't improve I'll send the rest."

It sounds like an easy weight loss program, but I don’t think it could work for me. Guilt doesn't keep me from eating. It has kept me awake more than once, however.

William Wirt Winchester's widow Sarah built a bizarre mansion in San Jose, California, to assuage her feelings of remorse. It is a house built over a 38-year period at a cost of over five million dollars. The 160 room house has stairways that lead to blank walls, corridors that lead to un-openable doors, 13 bathrooms, 13 stair steps, 13 lights to a chandelier, 13 windows to a room…strange.

Her husband was the son of Oliver Fisher Winchester, manufacturer of the famous Winchester repeating rifle. The house is referred to as the "guilt house," and was conceived as a never-ending building project to provide a home for spirits of those killed by Winchester rifles. Instead of addressing her grief and remorse in more therapeutic ways, Sarah’s project occupied the rest of her life.

The late Erma Bombeck called guilt "the gift that keeps on giving." (She also said she came from a family of pioneers – said her mother invented guilt in 1936.) And it CAN be a gift that keeps on giving when it isn't laid to rest. It can keep on giving problems to everyone it touches - emotional, physical and spiritual. It seems that if we don’t find a way to deal with it, guilt may deal with us in some frightening ways.

Do you have unresolved guilt? I'm not talking about "good" guilt, the feelings of shame or remorse that keep us from doing something incredibly stupid or hurtful. I mean unnecessary guilt. Over-anxiety and self-loathing about that which can no longer be changed.

If so, it may help to remember that:

• In one day you can recognize where your feelings of guilt come from.
• In one day you can decide to make necessary amends to those you may have hurt.
• In one day you can decide to ask for forgiveness from others.
• In one day you can exercise your spiritual power and choose to be at one with God and the universe.
• In one day you can decide to be gentler with yourself and allow yourself to experience the healing balm of acceptance.
• In one day you can resolve to learn from the past and not repeat your behavior.
• In one day you can choose to do something constructive with that guilt, and then continue every day until it is only a memory.

And best of all, that one day can be today.

-- Steve Goodier

Image: flicker.com/Aude Lising