Hands down, mine is….”This too shall pass.”
My grandfather was an alcoholic, and I remember as a child Alcoholics Anonymous slogans coming out of his mouth whenever I presented him with a problem I was having. At the time, I didn’t know it was an AA slogan; I just thought he was prolific. 😆 As I complained about Jennifer teasing me about my short hair and saying I looked like a boy in elementary school or sulking about not being as fast as one of my older sisters in the swim meet. His advice was always, “This too shall pass.”
It wasn’t until I found myself in the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous that I saw the phrase on a poster and pinned to a wall, and I knew in some way that I found my place. By this time, my grandfather had passed on, and my struggle with alcohol continued to feel like this was tied to a hereditary disease within my family. And I wanted my story to be different than his. I didn’t want to collect one-year chips. I wanted to live a sober life.
The quote has served me while remaining sober, during intense workout sessions when I wanted to quit, and while parenting my kids through challenging times.
This too shall pass.
It always puts things in perspective and allows me room to grow.
It frees me from a negative mindset and reminds me to surrender to what is happening right now at this moment. To be present and content with what is.
