Walking through treacle

Sometimes life just feels like you’re walking through never-ending treacle.  We are all likely to face challenges through our lives and of course it is only us who judge any situation to be a challenge.  What is a challenge for me, might be a breeze for you.  Jumping out of a plane?  For me a challenge – I don’t much like heights!  Would I go so far as to describe it as going through hell?  No.  A challenge, definitely, but hell, no.  ‘Hell’ like ‘challenge’ is a word that we each describe for ourselves.  Winston Churchill once said: “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”  And it is good advice.  But there is a danger that we can then find ourselves in a permanent state of ‘hell’ or a permanent state of ‘challenge’ and then it can feel like an endless endurance race.  And when we look around us, all we see, wherever we look, is ‘hell’ or ‘challenge’.  So it is really important to find our ‘dry land’: those moments when there is a pause and we can recharge our batteries and take stock.  Even if we have to re-enter the treacle and continue our challenge or our journey through hell. 

There is a story of two dogs. Both at separate times walk into the same room. One comes out wagging its tail while the other comes out growling.  A women watching this goes into the room to see what could possibly make one dog so happy and the other so angry. To her surprise, she find a room filled with mirrors.

The happy dog found a thousand happy dogs looking back at him while the angry dog saw only angry dogs growling back to him.  No matter what you are facing, whether it’s a challenge or whether it’s hell, find your high ground and be the happy dog!