Thankful for the Bad

You didn’t get here by yourself and you can’t exist here by yourself.

Wise words to live by.
If words are something by which you want to live.

I’m sure you’ve seen the picture of a turtle on the fence post. The caption reads, “He didn’t get there by himself.”
Apparently, turtles can’t climb.
Who knew?

You know, I doubt (I’m doubting the most doubt I’ve ever doubted) that the turtle wants to be on the fence post.

What a horrific predicament in which to find oneself. A turtle that can’t climb up most assuredly can’t climb down.
Thanks a lot for nothing.

What good is a view when you can’t eat anything? There’s no food on the fence post. The only thing surrounding him is air. At least he has his home with him. I doubt there’s a fridge.
By the way, if he does get down by himself, it could be a tad messy. Most certainly it would be painful.
Maybe he’d get a broken shell. He might even die. I’m certain that he’s hoping the same person that put him up there is coming back to take him down. The better option for the turtle would be to stay away from the person who likes setting turtles on fence posts. Somebody is going to have to feed the poor turtle at some point.

Anyway…
The point is, you don’t get anywhere entirely by yourself.
You didn’t get “up there” and you won’t continue to exist there alone.
You need someone. Whether it’s a good or bad, positive or negative, high or low experience…
You need others.

Have you ever realized even the hard times, the hard relationships, the bad experiences are helping you continue to exist here?

If we don’t have the rough times, how can we appreciate the good?

If we don’t have truly hard times, we will start to complain about something in the good times.

A wise man once wrote, “Iron sharpens iron.”

I doubt the iron sharpening experience is a pleasant one.

I remember when my dad would sharpen the lawn mower blades in his garage. It could be heard inside the house through closed doors and insulated walls. He used a metal grinder. He also used ear plugs (not to sharpen the blades) because of the horrific sound. Think of a metal grinder on metal blades. There was a lot of unpleasant sound and a lot of sparks. Also, think high-intensity scraping metal in a garage made entirely of hard surfaces. Ugh.
The result, however, was a beautiful, clean, smooth cut of grass.

Scraping, friction, heat. Losing the part of us that isn’t sharp. Losing the dull while gaining that honed edge suitable for fulfilling our purpose.

It’s probably a bad experience, but it does turn out to be a good one.

The wise man ended his talk about iron by writing this, “So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.”

The summary of what I’m trying to say is this:
We need people. We need experiences.
Good, Bad, and Ugly.
They shape us into what we should be.

They help us fulfill our purpose.
If we let them.

to those in a state of constant development, (especially me)
– Caleb