THE LION KNOWS

TODAY'S QUOTE:
The past can hurt. You can either run from it or learn from it. - The Lion King

The past does hurt if you've done more than simply exist. There's so much more to life than full lungs and a beating heart. A life where you've survived any kind of hardship is preferable to one where you had no hardship at all. An existence may be free of pain, but there's an absence of real to the soul pleasure too; possessing one requires the ownership of both. Running from your pain never works anyway, because it's a squatter that lives inside of you. Eviction is necessary, making facing it a mandatory step in the process.

No pain, no gain is a valuable prompt for a heart and mind stuck in a spot rough enough to make giving up seem like a likely reaction. The ability to remember the prize will help even the weariest traveler to continue struggling toward journey's end. Never look too far forward or the distance yet to go will overwhelm even the best of intentions. Never look backward overlong or you may lose heart altogether. Pay careful watch just ahead and be always mindful of every sign of any new lessons to be learned along the way.

Regret is a mighty teacher... anger, sorrow, and envy will instruct soul-deep if you validate them without allowing them to define you. There's nothing quite as liberating as making perfect sense of your pain by gaining something positive for the sake of the ache. And people who knee-jerk from one over-reaction to the next gain no ground worth possessing. They bellow the loudest and stomp the hardest, satisfied to be stuck in stupid for no good reason. Engage your brain... understand your emotions... direct your footsteps, and reap whatever positive harvest is possible from even the most weed-ridden terrain. Think about it... let it ride... then YOU decide!!!