Wake Up

Without change, something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken.

Frank Herbert

As we live through this world, we often find ourselves merely existing. Sure, we continue comfortably, not because things are going well, but because we have grown comfortable with our discomforts. Like that nagging back pain that will never go away or those shoes that are too tight, we have learned to adjust how we live to lessen the discomfort to a point that’s tolerable. And then we dismiss it as part of what it means to exist.

We see it in our everyday routine, repeated time and time again enough to a point that you no longer need any actually active brain cells to continue with your life. We see it in a dysfunctional relationship where the only communication is either discussion on how to pay bills or arguments over what pisses each other this time. We see it in a life where you simply forgot to even give up on life as you dull your soul out with poison; be it alcohol, drugs, or something as simple as lot of TV time.

But if you are lucky, if you are truly blessed, you will receive a wakeup call, a moment when merely existing is no longer acceptable. Maybe it was a medical crisis. Maybe it was a marital crisis. Maybe it was a financial crisis. Or maybe it was simply realizing that you could no longer look at yourself in the mirror as you lost who you were.

When I said that you are fortunate for having woken up by hitting bottom, I wasn’t being sarcastic. Some people hit bottom, and even then won’t wake up. You realized that you needed to change, grow, and better yourself. You understood that you couldn’t take another day as the man you were. That alone is commendable but don’t expect any celebratory parade as too often men wake up simply to change position and go right back to sleep.

Not this time. Not today.

Today you dust yourself off and you stretch yourself out, because the road ahead isn’t an easy own. It will force you to become accountable for every wrong choice you’ve done and to stop blaming yourself for everything you have no control over. You will unburden yourself of what’s not needed and carry a new load of all that you need in your new journey. Brothers, awaken and walk down your path. At the end, what changes isn’t simply your life, but the fact that now you are alive.