All too often we wake up and find ourselves surrounded by wreckage. We’ve been blind-sided by our choices in what to believe, when to give generously of ourselves, which direction to choose, or who to love.

We open our eyes in confusion at the madness, we can’t clearly recall the catalyst of the psychological and emotional train wreck, we only know that the parts of us that aren’t still numb are in agony.

There is no one to help us. We were the only passengers. So we remain still and breathe into the pain while we take a mental inventory of what we know.

Passers-by are oblivious to our internal carnage, our weakened hold on our ability to thrive, because we know how to keep our shit together.

We don’t release a single groan of despair. We’re strong enough to smile and wave them away while we slowly bleed out from a thousand tiny cuts sustained at the time of impact.

This is when shock sets in, and we know beyond all doubt that if we don’t act quickly most of what lights us will die.

So we hold on. We dig deeper. We know the cost of not living is too steep.

We decide we are worth saving. We decide to repair ourselves with the oft times painful needle of self-awareness, and the thread of determination. We don’t hope; we know.

We refuse to choke on regret as we do our work. We welcome the discomfort that comes with the tug and pull of every stitch we carefully place to keep out the finding of fault, negativity and self-neglect. We stop for a moment to drink gratitude from the cup of life, no longer noticing the spots on the glass that holds it.

We change our mind-set.

What was a tragedy, maybe even a crime, has become an achievement of possibilities. We pick a direction for ourselves and jump off the fence we were sitting on for too long. We leave worry behind us and become warriors.

We become born-again believers of our own value.

In the midst of the hot, smoking debris of our past we begin to build something beautiful.  We carefully place every single wrong thought and action firmly and deeply into the ground to create a rock solid foundation upon which we will build our future.

And so it begins.