SOMETIMES IT AINT SO EASY TO PICK YOURSELF UP, DUST YOURSELF OFF AND START ALL OVER AGAIN

Life throws many curve balls at you, most of which you cannot avoid. If they come in an inordinate number, and, as is their wont, wound your heart and your soul, they dangerously diminish your ability to even want to even try, to even stand your ground. You don't want to do anything except lie in bed and pull the covers over your head. And sleep, quite deeply, assuming the shattering risk that your dreams, if you do sleep, will throw back at you, those riveting images from which you wish to escape. With story plots, yet, which magnify and cruelly depict your steps of descent into the deep valley of depression, where you now find yourself.

And, words like "suck it up'","get back in the race", "just one step at at a time",bounce right off you, because you're not ready for affirmative action. You haven't the strength to break through the fog of fear which appears to cover the whole goddamn planet. Don't you deserve a little crash-crib woe-is-me time?

I say you do. And we're talkin'' unisex, man, 'cause the blues don't discriminate, baby. Put your hands on top of your head and let it out---for as long as it takes to drain the pus from the wound inside-----for as long as it takes to halt your falling deeper down. For only when you get to that place, when you know that you have hit bottom, that's when you can look around and begin to understand how you got there, what you did to get there, and how to get back on  the path  up to the exit door which is really the entrance door to your life.

And, don't expect it to be different than it was when you began driving the wrong way down a one way street.

There will be a difference, though, because this is a second take of a scene you've already played. It's more familiar and much less menacing. You know where the steps end and the sharp curves are. You've been there before. You got the do's and the don'ts of the rules of the road in your head, in a primo spot, where they can easily and always be seen. You've learned and remembered from your mistakes. You're ready to give life another shot----another chance. And your odds are better 'cause of what you've been through. You understand, still no guaranties, but now, your crashin' and wailin' and learnin' about where the land mines are, have given you a little bit of protective cover, a little bit of that essential called "self-confidence."

And you know that even if you still can't quite make it yet, the waves you make in your second try, will make you everybody's favorite in what you take on from that day and forevermore. Your emotional scars are combat medals  in your and in everyone's battle against the bumps and the blues. 

Wear them proudly. They mean you made it up the mountain, carrying mucho luggage, now marked "discardable."

At last, you're at the point at which it's the right time to PICK UP AND DUST OFF AND RESTART.

GO!