When life knocks you down........

Life is a journey, a ride full of ups and downs, twists and turns... In the course of life, often something unexpected happens, something which knocks us down.... something which shakes our faith and confidence. We can never control what will happen to us, but what really is in our hands is : how we react to it. Do we choose to fight back meaning try and stand up again or do we choose to lie back and make no attempts at all.

I remember reading a quote:

“When life knocks you down, try to land on your back. Because if you can look up, you can get up. Let your reason get you back up.” --- Les Brown

I feel its very true to look up always, dream for the moon and if the endeavor does fail, you land on the stars. Sometimes in order to truly become best we need to fall multiple times, learn from our falls and experiences. Experience is the best teacher, however , the way it teaches is difficult. Ultimately, its a matter of choice, do we choose to learn and move forward, or to ponder on our mistakes and the past. How much ever we want we cannot stops the needles of time; it is always best to move forward.

I recall reading an article about giraffes, a beautiful illustration of how the animal falls multiple times and finally learns to stand on its feet.

"Bringing a giraffe into the world is a tall order. A baby giraffe falls 10 feet from its mother's womb and usually lands on its back. Within seconds it rolls over and tucks its legs under its body. From this position it considers the world for the first time and shakes off the last vestiges of the birthing fluid from its eyes and ears. Then the mother giraffe rudely introduces its offspring to the reality of life. In his book, A View from the Zoo, Gary Richmond describes how a newborn giraffe learns its first lesson. The mother giraffe lowers her head long enough to take a quick look. Then she positions herself directly over her calf. She waits for about a minute, and then she does the most unreasonable thing. She swings her long, pendulous leg outward and kicks her baby, so that it is sent sprawling head over heels. When it doesn't get up, the violent process is repeated over and over again. The struggle to rise is momentous. As the baby calf grows tired, the mother kicks it again to stimulate its efforts. Finally, the calf stands for the first time on its wobbly legs. Then the mother giraffe does the most remarkable thing. She kicks it off its feet again. Why? She wants it to remember how it got up. In the wild, baby giraffes must be able to get up as quickly as possible to stay with the herd, where there is safety. Lions, hyenas, leopards, and wild hunting dogs all enjoy young giraffes, and they'd get it too, if the mother didn't teach her calf to get up quickly and get with it."


One thing which I find worth mentioning here is, its really important to look up in order to get back up again!!! Looking up implies looking forward to your dreams and desires... the beautiful tomorrow that you dream of, the purpose and passion that is the fuel of your life.
Also friends, it not only about dreaming, its about working towards the achievement of your dreams.

I recently watched a Hindi movie, and one incident in the movie was a catalyst to my thought process on this line. The movie was by Farhan Akhtar "Luck, by chance". In the movie, Farhan and Konkana go for shopping for household grocery and happen come across a fridge, which is the prize of a competition in which the participants have to give a caption for the fridge. Konkana is very reluctant in making an entry thinking out of the millions of entries what are the chances of hers becoming the lucky one. At this point Farhan mentions: If you dont make an entry there are 0% chances of you winning the contest.
I believe success is sometimes like a lottery ticket, the first step that you need to take is "buy the ticket" :) . Unless you buy the ticket there are "O" chances of you winning the lottery.

We may sometimes crib about the life we lead, about what god has given us and complain how he has been so unfair. Whenever, such a thought makes its way to your mind, pause, my friend, take a glance around and look around to numerous examples of how people have carved their way to success inspite of their limitations and drawbacks, how they have transformed their dreams into reality by the sheer power of belief, courage and confidence... with the "Never Give Up" spirit.
I understand what I write here may sound worthless and all bookish stuff to many. However, I saw a video recently and it really made me think twice... It made me fall in love again with my life... To life live and learn to be happy. I am sure the video will have a lasting impression on all of you and will leave you speeachless for a moment....Truly it does not matter how you start, what matters is how you finish....