Moving Forward

Life knocks us down, again and again!

Delivers blows we never saw coming,

shatters plans we thought were solid,

breaks us open in ways we never imagined!

We fall hard, we weep bitter tears,

we question everything we thought we knew,

we wonder how we will survive this,

how we will ever stand upright again!

Yet somehow, we do!

Somehow, we gather our scattered pieces,

somehow, we find strength we did not know we possessed,

somehow, we take one step, then another!

This is the miracle of human strength,

this capacity to endure what seems unendurable,

to rise from ashes of our former selves,

to keep going when every reason says to quit!

We learn to carry our scars with dignity,

to transform our pain into wisdom,

to use our struggles as stepping stones,

to make meaning from our suffering!

Each obstacle overcome becomes proof,

proof that we are stronger than we believed,

proof that we can weather storms and survive,

proof that breaking does not mean defeated!

We move forward, always forward!

Through grief and loss and disappointment,

through fear and doubt and uncertainty,

we keep walking toward whatever comes next!

This is what it means to be alive,

to fall and rise and fall and rise again,

to reject surrender even when wounded,

to choose hope over despair, movement over paralysis!

We are all warriors in our own wars,

all heroes of our private battles,

all survivors of struggles no one else sees,

and we move forward because that is what we do!