It was cold, blustery, foggy, and mostly cloudy at Chavez Park today but I walked anyway. I’d forgotten my sneakers today and was wearing my decent loafers, but I walked the full mile and a half anyway. The exercise-induced chest pains started up in the first quarter mile as usual and I greeted them as my new constant companions on my walk and walked anyway. (Side note: while we haven’t quite figured out what the chest pains are or what’s causing them, preliminary thoughts by qualified docs is that they are not life threatening.) Today any number of things came up that could have prevented me from walking, but I walked anyway. I am grateful this evening for the “anyways.”
The anyways often explain how things get done. In spite of all the things that happen to deter us from a particular course of action, we somehow find the will to do them anyway. Of course, this works both for the good and for the not-so-good. I can recall telling my children not to do something and they, yes, did it anyway. But I am not talking about that type of anyway. I am talking about the kind that helps compel us to do important things that need to be done but we are hindered in our efforts to take care of them. In spite of the obstacles, we find a way to do them. I am speaking to myself here. Lately I’ve persisted in accomplishing a whole lot of things that I haven’t had the energy or capacity or willpower to do. Today’s walk served as a reminder to me to let go of all the excuses (sometimes legitimate ones like chest pains) that I allow to get in my way and to push through them and all the resistance that often shows up.
As I began writing about my walk, I remembered this poem called “Do it Anyway.” It has been associated with Mother Teresa at her home for children in Calcutta, and it appears to be adapted from a composition written by Dr. Kent Keith.
People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway. If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway. What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway. Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway. In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.There are times when it’s important to persist and push through and there are times to let go and go with the flow. Balance is what’s important and listening to my what my intuition telling me when it’s time to do what. I tend to err on the side of “doing it anyway,” whatever the particular anyway happens to be, but sometimes stopping and giving up is the right course of action. I am grateful for the lesson today about anyways. Today it’s the walk, tomorrow it will be something else–another opportunity to practice. Learning, always learning. And even when I don’t much feel like learning, I’ll do it anyway.
