\u201cIf you can\u2019t fly then run, if you can\u2019t run then walk, if you can\u2019t walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.\u201d \u2014 Martin Luther King, 1960<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been crawling a lot of late.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not alone in this. Life, at times, offers all of us a haversack of trials\u2014crushing burdens in the moment and beyond.<\/p>\n
And we think of giving up.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not saying my challenges are any tougher than others, but just sayin\u2019: in my case, fighting off advancing and bruising Alzheimer\u2019s, cancer, black hole depression<\/a>, and the death of a son in 2022. No parent should ever have to bury a child.<\/p>\n Some days, the urge just to give up is overwhelming, as the body feels frozen in the moment and the demons are snapping. But I\u2019m trying not to take the bait, and think often of others struggling.<\/p>\n I\u2019m encouraged by Albert Einstein, who said: \u201cYou never fail until you stop trying.\u201d<\/p>\n As an aging jock, 76 now, I don\u2019t want to stop trying. So, I\u2019m fighting forward, but can\u2019t say it\u2019s easy in any way.<\/p>\n We all find discernment in many ways. I was raised Irish Catholic, both mother and father with deep Irish roots (47 of 48 branches of our family tree from Erie). I\u2019m now a bit more evangelical, though I haven\u2019t forgotten my roots.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not preaching, just trying to connect; we all come from different places. <\/p>\n I so respect that\u2026<\/p>\n I recently saw the blockbuster summer movie The Odyssey\u2014Director Chris Nolan\u2019s account of the ancient epic about the hero Odysseus trying to return home to his wife and son after serving in the Trojan War and the interminable string of hurdles in his path. Bloodied but unbowed, as William Henley writes in his epic poem \u201cInvictus,\u201d Odysseus never gave up, and through remarkable perseverance, he finally makes it home.<\/p>\n Doug Scalise, my pastor on Outer Cape Cod, emphasized the drive of Odysseus in his Sunday sermon to underscore the faith needed to persevere in life. \u201cThere\u2019s something deeply admirable about refusing to quit,\u201d Scalise said. \u201cSometimes we imagine perseverance as dramatic acts of courage. Occasionally it is. More often it looks like quiet faithfulness over a lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n Added Scalise, \u201cHave you ever had a week where every day brings another problem, another disappointment, another phone call telling you something you didn\u2019t want to hear?\u201d In a reference to the New Testament Book of Hebrews, he says: \u201cFaith in everything requires perseverance.\u201d <\/p>\n As a wholly imperfect person, I\u2019m trying to find my way out of a valley of depression without wavering. Scalise once reinforced to me that one can\u2019t helicopter out of such a serpentine valley; you have to walk it out.<\/p>\n We often find perseverance in different ways, though forward motion is forward motion. <\/p>\n Experts say perseverance is the confluence of passion and lasting stamina and is more critical in life than talent or intelligence<\/a>.<\/p>\n The American Psychological Association notes: \u201cPeople who don\u2019t give up on their goals<\/a> (or who get better over time at not giving up on their goals) and who have a positive outlook appear to have less anxiety and depression<\/a> and fewer panic attacks, according to a study of thousands of Americans over the course of 18 years.\u201d<\/p>\n The study, published by the American Psychological Association in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, says: \u201cPerseverance cultivates a sense of purposefulness<\/a> that can create resilience<\/a> against, or decrease, current levels of major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety<\/a> disorder and panic disorder.\u201d<\/p>\n Lead author of the study, Nur Hani Zainal, M.S., from Pennsylvania State University, notes: \u201cLooking on the bright side of unfortunate events has the same effect because people feel that life is meaningful, understandable and manageable\u2026Our findings suggest that people can improve their mental health by raising or maintaining high levels of tenacity, resilience and optimism<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Positive Psychology Essential Reads<\/p>\n No one said it would be easy\u2026Something to be said for baby steps.<\/p>\n As Rev. King once observed, \u201cYou don\u2019t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.\u201d<\/p>\n Had Odysseus not persevered, had he given up, symbolically he\u2019d still be in the Trojan Horse.<\/p>\n Not a good place for any of us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIf you can\u2019t fly then run, if you can\u2019t run then walk, if you can\u2019t walk then crawl,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-567017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}