Keep Moving Forward

One day almost six years ago I sat at the movie theater with my sister Samantha to watch the Disney movie, "Meet the Robinsons".  I was going through a really tough time, mourning the past and trying to change the present, and for whatever reason the main line in the movie really stuck with me:  "Keep Moving Forward".  On days when I get bogged down, when life is going crazy, when I'm sobbing in a heap, or I am dazed and confused, that's when it's time to write, reflect, pray, and Keep Moving Forward.  I call those days/weeks/months "moments of haze" because it's not really a depression but it's a foggy place where I forget to trust God and forget that life is happening around me and NEEDS me.

I think everyone needs a mantra in life, and for the past six years, this has been mine.  Mixed with others like Passionate for Purpose, Life is Outside...Live Justly, Walk Humbly, Love Mercy, and Share Joy.  Words give inspiration and new meaning to images, thoughts floating around.  They create a framework for the vision, a place where while applying that mantra, you do indeed, move forward.

The tough part is when something catches you, a memory, a comment, a song, or someone else recalling a memory you thought they had forgotten.  It's like you are walking along a garden path, and the blackberry bush snags your shirt.  If you stay calm, remember the truth that a gentle tug releases you, you are quickly on your way.  But if you panic, throwing your arms around in exasperation, grasping around you quickly for a lifesaver, for that other branch that looks safe but indeed is not, that's when you become trapped, entangled in your own mess.  The bush has you wrapped up in it suddenly, and it was just that little pinch that began it all.  The haze sets in and you can't see the path you were once walking on.  The sunshine beaming down on that earthtrodden trail is hidden by the fog, and if you panic, it swirls in even more around you.  Taking a deep breath, you walk slowly in a line, remembering that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, and slowly, assuredly, the haze begins to lift.  Remembering truth and moving forward to what you believe is the Light, helps untangle you, and once again, you are walking down the sunshine trail into another day.