No outward motion or change, when normal, in man's external body can take place unless provoked by an inward impulse.

Today, after much fighting with my little brothers, I finally took them down to our community pool. I just laid on a chair and rested while they were swimming. It would have been an amazing day, had it not been for 1,000 mph wind! It was about 75 degrees outside, but felt like 50. Anyways, I was thinking about all the stuff going on right now in my life, when suddenly I saw a bird up in the sky. Obviously, the wind is a lot more strong higher up in the sky. I watched the bird flapping and flailing for about 15 minutes, while not moving at all. The wind had picked up so much, and was not letting up for awhile. I noticed a couple of other birds surrounding him, and after a few minutes they gave up and dove down to the ground. Finally, the bird made it! The wind let up and he was on his way. I couldn't believe that he had pushed on for so long. It was 15 minutes of physical, mental, and emotional drainage, with no let up in the resistance. Besides the resistance itself, the surrounding birds gave up after only a few minutes, which would have made it easy for him to give up too. I started thinking about how much I myself just give up after taking so much resistance, even though eventually "the wind will die down". I was thinking even more about how the rate of how fast I give up is accelerated by how many of those around me give up. We are always stronger than the struggle at hand if we just push through it. Although, it goes without saying, that failures naturally come with struggles. If we just push through the struggles of life without failing during them and come out on the other side, what did we learn? If, when we fall, we lay there and wait for someone else to pick us up, will we ever learn how to get back up on our own? I believe that failures can teach us more than successes ever can. A success is made up of "picking ourselves back up" multiple times. In order for us to have to pick ourselves up, we need to fall. Although the success may be the end result, which feels great, the failures that got us to that success are what matter most. So, after thinking about all of that, I look forward to resistance. I look forward to not being able to fall, but the opportunity to pick myself back up from the fall, which I have had plenty of chances to in the past. Here's to opposition!