DEFEAT

We learn from it: defeat.

Don't give up. Never give up. Go down swinging; fighting; praying; to the last breath believing.
Don't give up.
Never give up.
Even if you are the final person standing, or kneeling, or sucking at the dust.
Never give up.
Even if  you are the only person staggering to continue; bleeding out with no one around; praying to what seems is a deaf and uncaring God: don't give up.

Never. Ever.
Even if you are the only person believing in yourself and your own belief is crying out: Why?
You cannot give up --on yourself.

Perhaps this is the hardest lesson of all.
( Perhaps this is the folly of a mad artist facing her own despair.)
Or, perhaps this is the whispered hope of angels...a message to a faulty human from a perfect Creator...THIS IS HOW YOU EVOLVE.

This is how we grow.
This is how we progress and become and learn to fly.

Pick yourself up. Knock off the dust. Wash off the blood. Take a breath. Look at the sky.
Or the dirt.
Or the trees.
 Breathe some more.
Move in one direction, however slowly, however painfully, however clumsily, but keep moving.
Keep breathing.
Keep believing: this, too, will end. This, too, will change.

I have not always dwelt in this failure. I have not always crawled through this pain.
I have not always been this hungry, nor tired, nor dirty nor hopeless.

I have known grace.
I have witnessed light.
I have laughed and shared and touched.
I have been touched back, in return.
There have been kisses and caresses and kind words. There have been dances and singing and parties in my honor.
My name has been spoken with love; with reverence; with respect.
Numbers do not matter. Who has the most "friends" in the world, at this time, does not matter.
(Who has the biggest bank account or the most "toys" doesn't win.)

These are transient properties, always changing, ephemeral and wild. Everything is made of atoms. Atoms are everywhere. Electricity unites us. There is more ''dark matter'' in the Universe than what we can see with our eyes. Mystery abounds. Defeat is a passing phenomenon, like rain in the desert. And as with rain in the desert, defeat will yield to a glorious harvest--in time.
In time.

In time, I am not alone.

I will always have one person who depends on me; who loves me; who knows me inside and out; who will never abandon nor leave.
I have myself.

The Universe is contained inside me.
However cold or dark the circumstances surrounding me; however dim the light around me; this is Truth.
The Universe is me.
I cannot be alone.
I am supposed to be here.

This promise has been handed down through the eons; the greatest Teachers have carried it and passed it to us, unblemished; undiminished; unchanged.

Believe.
Breathe.
Be.

Embrace defeat; see it as the ally it is meant to be. A lesson in motion; longevity; perfection.

Keep moving, forward, if you can, sideways if you must.
Seek out others, even if they are in the distance or in the shadows or in the darkness surrounding you. (Seek out others who softly moan, believing they, too, are alone and lost.)
 Seek them out and reach out and call out to them.
Tell them that we will move along, together, toward a different moment.
A time when Light will, again, rule.
A time when our voices will be heard; treasured and written down as Truth.

A time when what we have brought into existence will be recognized; valued for the gift it was meant to be.

If you do not share what you were meant to bring to this planet, it is lost, forever.

Forever. Believe.

Rise. Breathe. Move on, again.