The long game

Life is about the long game. You need a cast iron arse because shit does not happen over night. Life would be so much easier if it did but we wouldn’t appreciate anything would we?
The things we have that we truly care about have taken work, effort and sweat. We have struggled for them, came close to losing them then reclaimed them. The importance is in the struggle because if we didn’t care we would have let them go and not even felt their passing.
The long game teaches you things about yourself. It teaches you can grow. It teaches you can evolve. We all think we’re the finished product but we’re not. Life can still make you feel like a child. It makes you feel venerable and powerless. You question all your certainties and you re-evaluate everything you thought you believed in.
Sooner or later you have to confront yourself. Sooner or later you have to put away all your clichés and truly see yourself. See the naked you. The infant you. The child in you.
I am no longer a child but I’ve had a good run.
To long of a run.
I’ve pushed it just over the line and the child has withered in the glare of all the consequences. Humbled and mewling he has cried, beat himself. He’s fought back but eventually in a blaze of clarity he has dropped his guard and conceded.
He’s taken his final bow and departed from the stage without fuss.
The man stands in his place.
The man knows that life isn’t only today. He knows his faults and is strong enough to deny his baser nature. Strong enough to throw out all those things that will ruin him, that will debase him, that will divert him from the truth.
The man understands the long game. He knows it’s not just today or tomorrow or next week. He knows the path will be rocky. He knows it will be steep and the journey will be long but his legs are strong.
His heart pumps with certainty.
It pumps faith through him.
His goals are there waiting, calling to him. Out of reach but he will reach them. With sweat and blistered feet and sun chapped lips he will reach them. With effort and faith he will reach them and the journey will be time well spent.