In his wonderful book of meditations entitled, “The Awakening,” Mark Nepo quotes poet Kurtis Lamkin:

“Believing is all a child does for a living”

I’ve been thinking about that quote for the past couple of days as I move my life in a new direction. And it occurs to me that as adults, we would do well to get back in touch with the child in us that had no other options but to believe. And as one who celebrates Christmas, there’s no better time to reclaim Belief than right now.

Sometimes it feels like belief is our only option: The money’s gone. Or the job is gone. Maybe we just saw our spouse pack a suitcase and leave for good. Or maybe we had to ask him to leave. Maybe we just lost a child. Or maybe the doctor just gave us the bad news.

Whatever we face, belief is an island we can swim to in a storm. And it’s a a promise to ourselves that if we just hold on a little longer, the sun will shine again.

And it’s a refuge for the people we love, the ones that may have forgotten their child-like ability to believe. That’s when we need to take them by the hand and heart and say, “I love you and I believe in you. And you’ll get through this.” 

There will be times when we see only one set of footprints in the sand and know that we’ve been carried. And sometimes, those footprints will be ours.

But that’s what life is about:

Believing in ourselves enough to turn dark clouds into rainbows

And Believing in others until they believe in themselves