“The Storm”
By: Wishes to remain nameless
How much can you take? How long can you endure? Are you going to break? These are questions you ask yourself when you are going through a storm, not a storm that will cause people to drive with their hazards on, but a storm of emotion and pain. The storm is looming with no sign of leaving, it’s a Cat 6 Hurricane that is sitting over you, with no eye for any type of temporary relief. This storm would make the biggest storm chasers turn and run away. You don’t have that option, nope, you are in it and you can’t leave. So, do you yield? Well, you can…. This storm isn’t going anywhere until you either yield or you “hunker down.” But do you really want to yield? Or do you have what it takes to get through this storm?
How much can you take? While it seems like a pretty straight-forward question, it has multiple layers. Sure, in general it’s really a matter of your pain tolerance… how much can you take? But what type of pain? There are many different types, physical, emotional, & mental being the big three. The storm is ready to pummel you with them, a full-on hailstorm of hurt! Every drop is going to feel like a brick, and you can’t hide under shelter, no umbrella will stop these drops. Nope, you must stand in the middle of this storm with no protection and take it. How much can you take? For each of us, that limit is different, some may yield right away while others make it out. When you are in this storm you must search deep within yourself to find out how much you can take. Do you have the strength to take it? Is the end worth the journey? Yes, yes, it is. So now you know how much you can take, that’s all of it! The storm is going to keep throwing everything at you, bring it!
How long can you endure? Ahh the test of time, when will this end?! The storm doesn’t have a countdown timer on it. It can last for days, weeks, months, even years. Everyday will be like a Groundhog Day from hell! It will be a daily test of your might, and it is going to try to get you to yield every single day. So, not only do you not get shelter from the storm, now you find out that it can keep this up indefinitely. That’s a terrifying thought and one that quite frankly will make most people yield. The knowledge that the pain will endure and will keep coming day after day if you do not yield is something that can make even the strongest person yield. Waking up everyday to see that storm waiting for you, laughing at you, thinking it is going to make you break, it’s truly terrifying. And that’s exactly what it wants, it wants to make you think that it will NEVER END! But that’s not the case, it will end. You just must find the strength to endure, to outlast, to not yield. Why is this storm here? What is the storm trying to take from you? Once you’re able to not only identify this but also understand the why, that’s when you are able to find the power to get through it. You can wake up every day and hold up a huge lightning rod towards the sky and say BRING IT! Wake up and dance in the storm, every second/minute/hour/day/week/month. Take every minute of the storm and use it against it, make the storm regret ever forming, ever coming to you. The storm will think you will not be able to endure, but the storm is wrong!
Are you going to break? The endgame, the light at the end of the storm, the very thing it is trying to keep you from. The storm is going to continue to try everything it can to make you break, to make you give up, quit. It needs you to yield, that’s it’s sole mission, to break you and with it, win. Do you break? Do you give in to the storm? It’s something that becomes very tempting, it seems at times that it is the only option. The storm want’s you to believe that, it needs you to think that the only option is to break. It will try everything in its power to make you think that not only will it never end but that you have no choice but to break. Think about it, it is going to seem like it won’t end, that the storm will never tire, never let up, never quit and that is a frightening thought. Well, the endgame is the important part of this. What is it trying to achieve, what does it want? The good thing about this storm is that its power/control/size/duration are its very weaknesses. The storm will make it very clear what it wants, the question is, who wants it more? The storm or you? Are you willing to break and give in to the storm, to let it have what it wants? Or is the endgame something that you can’t live without, something you refuse to let go? The storm wants it, needs it, feeds off it and that is what makes it weak. It shows its weakness and let’s you see the lightning bolt before it even strikes. Once you are able to understand this and are able to see through its cloud of pain, then you know the endgame, the goal. That is when you must not break, bend, quit. That is when you take the power from the storm and use it against it. If it is big and you are little, then you are fast, and it is slow. It’s very strengths and actions become the very thing that will make it possible to not only take it, endure it, but also not break to it. This is how you DO NOT BREAK!
Storms are always there, in some form or another. The ultimate test of one’s self is to not only weather the storm, but to come out stronger. The storm will only win if you let it, you must choose to make it through, to take it, to endure, to not break! This song resonates many of the emotions the storm will evoke, but one line is the most important…. Broken, I crawl back to life.