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Take-up arms

Discouragement engulfs us into despair unless we accept others' help

By Mahonry FrancoPublished 3 years ago 5 min read
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Take-up arms
Photo by Xuan Nguyen on Unsplash

Discouragement. It is the thing that will make you feel as useless as the letter U in the word "guitar."

Regardless of the word, the letter is still important; U are still important. As you go to and fro you will come across opposition which will deliver heavy blows verbally, physically, emotionally, or conscious/unconsciously that will make it seem like U aren't. Perhaps you are tough enough to take a few hits, after all, we are a strong species. Sooner or later, however, there will come a time where a cry for help will be greatly needed; there is nothing wrong with accepting assistance here and there.

It's as if you were locked in a room inside a sinking ship, and the water causing tremendous alarm was driving you mad due to its growth. At first, you didn't notice the ship leaked. A small amount of water makes no difference. Nonetheless, its gradual increase accumulates until it becomes a serious problem.

You know it's only a matter of time before the water kills you. So what do you do? Naturally, you try to survive. (Hypothetically speaking of course.) Every second is valuable. You know you have to do something or you'll die. All you think about is a way to get out; internally, escaping becomes your goal and the vision is clear in your mind "I'll get through this. I have so much to live for." The adrenaline enhances your senses and you begin to see what you need and touch what you must. The ugly truth, however, is that you could try your hardest and still end up locked in this room. If this were the case, it would seem you didn't accomplish your goal, your efforts were useless, all you can do now is cry for help as your area to breathe gradually diminishes. Fortunately though, you were not alone on this ship. A stranger heard your cry; they found you, and broke you out of the room you were locked in!

Let's break this down...

The oxygen you have represents hope. The constant flow of water reflects negative comments, feelings of inadequacy, stress, toxic thoughts, standards you strive for but can't live up to, or an unsuccessful day/week/month/year. A puddle isn't scary, you could deal with negativity in manageable doses. A full ocean all at once though; that's a different scenario. As the water rises your hope decreases. At a certain level, you see too much water, where the situation is now beyond your control, thus leaving you with discouragement. (A thing that causes you to justify your lack of success and annihilates confidence and enthusiasm. ) Finally, we have the stranger, he is an exemplar of the people in our lives; when we call for help someone is bound to answer. The assistance they provide can very well be life-changing. Therefore you ought to consider reaching out.

Here's another observation. I want to nerd up by traveling to J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit: An unexpected journey.

Plummeting down a mountain, the dwarves find themselves in the midst of thousands of wretched goblins. These creatures are holding a couple of torches accompanied by pointy sticks, similar to an angry mob. To make matters worse, some of them are playing an intense drumbeat in the background that is normally heard in times of a ceremonial public sacrifice. We all know classical music soothes. Pop music pushes us past the boundary of containment where we sing and dance. And rock 'n' roll pumps our blood making us feel awesome. So what are the effects of this intense drumbeat? I can tell you it wasn't pretty for them, the dwarves I mean. These goblins ferociously stripped them from their weapons and forcefully took them to see their goblin king. On arrival, one of the swords wielded by a dwarf was discovered, striking fear upon every goblin there, including the king. As a result, the vicious creatures beat our unarmed heroes with whips, gnashed them with their nasty claws, acted on pure hate, following the order to kill.

(This is my favorite scene since we get to witness true power coming forth from good, even though good is engulfed in the depths of evil.)

Just as the dwarves were about to get wrecked. A light appeared out of nowhere with such force that swept everyone off their feet. The sound of silence took over changing the emotional momentum. The lighting went dark then gradually increased as it revealed Gandalf holding a sharp sword in his right hand and his magic staff in the left. As the camera shot closer to his face you could hear the music calmy return with a sonnet of hope. It was a major shift in gears perfectly crafted for him to deliver 5 glorious words. "Take up arms... fight... Fight!"

...

Why do I bring this up? Well, out of all the lessons that can be learned I view the goblins as an example of "discouragement." The dwarves are us. And Gandalf is the stranger we talked about in the previous scenario. Notice how the dwarves did not plea for help in this situation. Had it not been for Gandalf's appearance they would have been killed. Life is not always sunshine and rainbows. Like the dwarves, we can journey on but alone we won't get far. We need other people to help us plow through discouragement so that we can reach our end goal. When they come the choice to heed their advice is ours to make. Will we allow discouragement to win? or Will we obtain added strength lovingly offered by our peers' counsel?

"Take up arms... fight... Fight!"

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About the Creator

Mahonry Franco

Experience, learn, share, repeat. To me, Vocal is a journal to do exactly that.

Youtube Channel: Mahonry Franco

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