When the Answer is NO
Dear Miracles: Let us now discuss one of the hardest words to hear and take to heart, short and phonetically simple, but one that most of us spend our entire lives grappling with — NO.
The guy that just won’t call you back.
The lady that gently refuses all advances.
The ex who isn’t going to return to you-not now, not ever.
The boss who sits you down to tell you why they went with your co-worker for the promotion.
Your friend who picked the other person to go to the party with.
The poem that got rejected.
Calls that weren’t made, letters that weren’t written, paths not taken. NO.
Sometimes the answer is simply no.
NO can be painful, soul crushing, a sucker punch to the solar plexus, a smacking your face right up against the sheer cliff of reality-where faith seems very small indeed.
NO can be liberating, freeing, a gleaming, bright truth that you can set your lights by and follow to a deep(er) & true(er) sense of direction, purpose, joy.
In my own experience NO is something I hate to hear…and when I look back a year later, I am almost always thankful that I did hear it — thankful for the doors that have closed firmly and finally in my face.
Thankful that option was taken off the table.
Happy to have that path once and for all decided on as the one I will not be traveling this lifetime, thank you very much.
NO requires a sharp intake of breath, a sizzle of electricity over the skin, the bottom of your stomach falling out, a moment to mourn for what could have been. You can stay there-in that hopeless place for as long as you choose.
Or you can rise up to meet NO with “what if…”, “could it be…”, “maybe now…”.
NO can challenge you to stretch yourself, go upside down, turn it around, STOP engaging in actions and behaviors that do not serve you or those around you.
NO might just free up your energy to get on with doing what you really need to be doing.
My advice when confronted with a NO?
Don’t let it suck your faith out of you. Consider that your faith might be deeper & more full of grace than you ever knew-and that this NO might just be the beginning of you getting down to business and doing what you really need to be doing in this one, sweet, short life.
Meet it. Face it.
My prayer for you then is this: Take the power of NO for your own, put it to work for you and don’t give yourself, your passion, your faith over to it.
You never know what is just around the bend & its not what you are told — it is what you do with it that makes all the difference.