Life and its Quandaries... we must keep going.
Photo credit: My husband
Kathy King
The Gift of a Quandary
Life is a quandary.
Life can be a mess.
There are days when you feel that all you could do is just catch a smidgen of rest.
The day feels like you are trudging up a hill.
The mud and muck make it so difficult to even make it a few steps up that hill.
You see the mountain of debt that life has accumulated.
Funds are low, you are not sure that you can make it.
You just want to quit.
You just can’t take it.
When life hits you with those merciless blows.
Remember dear readers, to stop, pray, and come to know.
That there are times when life hits us with all that it has.
Keep going, keep trudging.
Even when peace seems slow, keep looking up.
Success and failure, those words encompass quite a lot.
One little twist, or an attitude that turns.
Could make all the difference between those two words
When you fall, sometimes you have to get up.
Dust off those knees and learn to never give up.
That success may be closer than it seems.
Keep walking on, dare to dream.
It was once said by the poet, John Whittier:
“Success is failure turned inside out-
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
Ad you never can tell just how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far;
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit-
It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.
For all the sad words of tongue or pen.
The saddest are these: “It might have been!”
Listen, keep going dear readers and friends.
We’ve often been told that things are darkest before the dawn.
If that is true dear readers, we must carry on.
What is a quandary? It is a state of perplexity. It is uncertainty in a given situation. How often do we walk through life in a quandary? I know I do a good bit. When I read the entire poem by John Whittier I had to take a moment and pause. He wrote about how life is strange with its twists and turns. But the words that really caught my attention were: “Life is strange with its twists and turns. As every one of us sometimes learns. And many a failure comes about. When he might have had he stuck it out; Don’t give up though the pace seems slow- You may succeed with another blow.” That sums up life in so many words. The hard work, the meaningful work, the work that causes change. That work, that journey is what we are aiming for. Life seems so easy when we have a little computer in our hands. We have instant access to all the information that we could ever want. We can order things with a click of a button. We don’t even have to leave the house. While those conveniences are wonderful. Are they meaningful? When I started to read the life of John Whittier I was truly in awe. He was a Quaker, a poet, a politician and an abolitionist. He suffered not one, but two mental breakdowns. Yet he did not give up. He supported women writers when that was not an encouraged vocation. He was committed to being a good human to all. It is worth pondering if we as a society need to return to these ideas. These ideas and actions do not have to be momentous or full of pomp and splendor. But rather they can be small. Mostly, this particular poem shows that this soul despite his physical ailments he did not give up. He did not stop writing. He did not stop trying to be a good human. Life is a quandary for sure. But that quandary is very much a decision to keep going when we can hardly walk. I am reminded of the words of Epictetus: “No great thing is created suddenly.” Keep going through the quandary dear readers.
Source: Poetry Foundation
John Greenleaf Whittier
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