Ding Ding Ding!

If we’ve heard it once, we’ve heard it at least 11 1/2 times: the hits just keep on coming.

Life hurtles towards us at full throttle sometimes and after taking a few shots to the noggin’, some body blows, more shots to the noggin’ and more body blows (followed by eleventeen hundred more shots to the noggin’), with any luck we learn to duck, bob and weave and defensively throw our hands up to try blocking some punches in the interest of self-preservation. In the heat of our battles in this thing called Life, emotions can run high and it can feel like the Universe is conspiring against us at times.

Fighting the Universe – how hard can it be?

Surely there’s a manual somewhere.

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If there’s one thing I’ve learned along the way, it’s that putting your dukes up against a formidable opponent like the Universe can pretty much wipe you out. That’s not to say we should just wave the white flag at the first sign of adversity. Hells nah! Life’s a battle and we’d get nowhere fast if we didn’t push through the hard times. But there’s intrinsic value in taking a step back from the emotions and recognizing the patterns and signs we’re given when it becomes clear that not everything we want is meant for us or right for us.

Sure, we can fight it. We may feel that since we survived the last round, we’ve caught our breath long enough that we feel ready for the next one. The bell rings, we tap gloves and start dancing around the ring. “Stick and move. Stick….and MOVE!”

Well…

Sticking and moving doesn’t always work when Mr. Universe himself has other plans. And sometimes there’s just not much room to move in the boxing ring of life, despite our best shimmy. Eventually another uppercut smacks us upside the head and sometimes we’re knocked down and hit the canvas.

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Spoiler Alert: getting knocked down in life is part of the human experience.

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If this is where our story ended it would be the most pathetic of all, but thankfully it’s not. We know what to do – we’ve been knocked down plenty of times before. We might linger on the canvas longer than we should sometimes but that’s ok! And hopefully when we see others knocked down, we offer them a hand back up.

Flashback to a classic scene from Rocky IV where our beloved Rocky Balboa, bruised, bloodied and battered while fighting Russian beast Ivan Drago, is between rounds and trying to make sense of what’s happening.

Rocky: “I see three of him out there!”

Pauly: “Hit the one in the middle!”

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Good call. When life beats us down, our vision can get impaired but we gotta keep going. Hopefully we learn to follow the signs of what’s working in our lives and what isn’t so we can head the right direction.

The more I walk the planet, the deeper my appreciation is for the things that are flowing in my life – and I also appreciate the signs when things that used to flow, no longer do. Cuz when that bell rings for the next round…I’d like to be fighting along with life’s plan for me rather than against it.