This week’s calligraphy prompt was to be inspired by a monument or experience of wonder. We climbed Mt. Fuji last year, so instantly I thought of that experience. I used a Sumi brush with black ink, a Pentel grey ink brush pen, a wink of Wanda glitter pen, and a white gel pen. The saying has as much to do with the climb as it does with any creative adventure.
How many times do we fail and want to stay down? We are discouraged, frustrated, disappointed and most of all ashamed of ourselves. We have put forth all this effort, time, and energy to not reach the end goal. And yet it happens to us all. Everyone fails, but not everyone learns from their failures. They refuse to learn or change so they keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again, eventually giving up all together. They fall that seventh time and stay face down in the dirt.
Everyone loves a come back story, We all love to cheer for the underdog, the one who came back from behind, the loser who refused to give up until they won. We want to believe that anyone can be anything, and they can…as long as they get up that eight time. No one wins or reaches their goal by staying flat on their back basking in their own despair. You have to get up one more time and try again. Getting up after one or two failures is bad enough, but seven?!? My guess is a wise Japanese teacher knew that after six or seven falls the desire to stay down would be greater than the desire to try again, hence the proverb.
So get up, get moving, give it one more try. Keep going, keep learning, change, and try again. And if you fall down, get up that eighth time. You can do it, everyone may laugh as you get back up, but the winner is the one left standing when the dust settles. Be that winner and get back up and try again.
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