Well, it’s been a hot minute since I posted a new post. To those of you who have been still coming to my blog all this time, thank you. You are a shining light in the crap heap that is 2020.
I think that most people have been knocked down by the pandemic. I’m no exception. Opportunities that I thought were there are gone. Dreams that I’ve held onto for years and years are at best postponed. At worst, they’re not feasible. I find myself scrambling to try and figure out backup plans to what I thought were solid backup plans. Even my big, overarching writing dream seems like it’s moving ever further away from my grasp. Though friends, family, and treasured mentors have tried to comfort me and help me to develop plans, I have still felt knocked down and not sure how to get back up and get back into the fight.
I still don’t really know.
But there’s a video clip that I use when I teach. It’s from the movie Rocky Balboa, and it’s probably one of the greatest movie speeches I’ve ever heard. Rocky says,
Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done. Now, if you know what you’re worth then go out and get what you’re worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain’t you. You’re better than that.
Life beat the world to its knees with this pandemic.
If you’ve been knocked down too, know that you’re not alone. I don’t know how you should move forward or what that would look like for you. I don’t know how I should move forward. I don’t know how to make the future less scary and more stable. But I do know that we can’t stay down.
So, whatever it may be for you, remember to keep taking those hits and keep getting up and moving forward again. I know. Easier said than done. Geeze, I know that.
But we’ll get up. You will get up. I will get up. Even if it is while wearing a mask.
At the Foot of the Sierras 
Great blog entry Elizabeth, thank you for sharing! That quote from Rocky is so true and to the point. People in Society today have a propensity to want to blame their failures on others instead of owning what part of it that is theirs to own. The sooner we own our failures, weaknesses and mistakes, the sooner we can learn from them and keep pressing forward! Never give up. No retreat, no surrender!
Thank you, Rick!