|| warrior vs. victim ||

Today, I ran. Oh how it was quite lovely! Refreshing, crisp weather, and an open schedule to run as long as I wanted to. Between mile 2 and 3, I was running on a sidewalk and fell. Not a cute, graceful fall… it was a plummet to the ground, roll kind of a fall. To add to this moment, I was near a stop light where a few cars had a front row seat to my fall. I was determined to run and not about to let a fall stop me from running despite my soreness and new cuts, so I walked for a bit and then continued on my run.  As I felt the scrapes on my knee rubbing on my leggings and the random burst of my hand sore rubbing on my jacket, I began to think about falls, falling, and what that is in life.

We all fall. We all wipe out. We make mistakes. We fail. We make horrid choices. It is a part of being human. So, as a result, we all have scars and wounds. Some are deeper than others… some are fresher than others… but we all as human experience this. I was thinking about then what is the difference between a warrior and victim. They both have been wounded. And yet… the perspective to their wounds and scars is drastically different.  A warrior has taken their wounds and scars…the falls and used it to empower them onwards and taken the power back and redefined what each means to them…. and has made the intentional choice to rise up.. to fight and to stand once again. A victim has allowed those falls, scars, and wounds to define them…. submitting to the power of the pain… and succumbed. All warriors have been victims and yet, and yet every victim is not a warrior… maybe a dormant warrior. It's all about perspective. Interesting, eh?

My friend Kayla and I were talking at the to go boxing station that we have about how we all experience pain, hurts, and wounds and how important it is to process through them. It's healthy to process through them…. whether that looks like a blog, painting, writing, talking it out… I think it even connects to the separation between a victim and a warrior… you cannot become a warrior without processing through your wounds and hurts.

I am determined to be a warrior. Thinking through last year, there are severalllll moments that could have taken me out… moments that could have let me stay in a victim mindset, but, much like my fall this morning, I decided to roll out of the fall, to get back up and keep going. Resilience. Having the strength to choose to fall, to fall hard and to get back up again…. and to allow the falls, the wounds to fuel us onwards. On a fun side note, I went on to run a little over 8 miles. *smile*

i am a warrior… hear me roar *smile*