LOSE SOME FIGHTS TO WIN

Heard this somewhere...
......'you have to lose some fights so you can learn to win'.....

Didn't quite get that first time I heard it. Lose not just one but several? But first what does that mean by losing a fight? Because my lolo (grandfather) once told me that losing means just one thing -- giving up so easily or losing fire within. I've always thought myself a fighter; learned it from my mom. She fought the good fight with life's turbulence and strife. Did it with her own quiet steady courage. She never failed to amaze me as she went through the day caring for her family's needs, working hard and praying just as hard or even harder. Never gave up down to her last dying breath. My hero.

I begun to think and looked back to my own battles. And you know what..... that line is correct!

At several points in the past I gave away the fight but for a reason... a reason which the heart alone knows. It didn't make me miserable as I thought it would. I realize it now that it never does when you know in your heart that something else is there waiting for its moment. One lost fight does not make a failure, not even with several more. Just as long as you still have the fight in you. It's like you simply stepped back a few steps for the need to recharge energize or evaluate your options. It's the act of one who understands that sometimes it is smarter to kick on the brakes before possibly careening down the slope to disaster foolishly without a thought. So I slowed down to a full stop. I always did that when there was a need to.

To make a long story short.. I'm glad that I did. When I let go the fight it may have seemed that the problem won over me. But I knew better and waited for the right time. It came and I was ready for it...... with the same quiet steady strength of my mom. Now I understand her even much better. She knew how to fight..... taught me how with her own battles.

You have to lose some fights so you can learn to win.