Push Through the Ugly

Push through the ugly… Wow how could four little words resonate so instantly with me?

This I know from 56 years of living, 28 years of marriage, 11 siblings, 9 kids, 2 cancers and beyond – any worthy fruit worth having is going to take lots of toil. The more valuable the fruit the more effort and expense of energy and emotion. NEWS FLASH: We KNOW this already.  So why do we faint when it gets ugly? Why are we SO surprised and shocked when it gets DEEP DOWN UGLY?

I don’t know. We do though. We forget. So here it is again. Push through the ugly. It could be your labor transition. It could be the endless run of nights trying to get a newborn back to sleep. It could be your 5th chemo out of 12. It could be your 14 yo daughter hating you with her looks. It could be someone quitting when you were totally relying on them to finish the job. It could be getting sick when you really don’t have time to deal with yourself. It could be dealing with a different than you team member and a high stakes deadline. It could be the gut turning fear of the leap you are about to take in your life. What’s ugly for you? Push through. Don’t stop at the edge of ugly. Don’t get stuck in the ugly. Push through.

I had some ugly days recently. The kind where you pause to reply to email cause you can feel the ugly about to leap and spread like a nasty virus through the electrons. These words helped me. Push through the ugly. It doesn’t always end like this but at the end of the week a surprise gift came my way and I got to hold the GRANDbaby. Beautiful! I don’t want to pretend that ugly goes away sooner than we hope but please for your sake and the sake of others… Push through the ugly. You’ll never know how close you were to beauty unless you push through.