There sucks. You've been there. I have, too. And it's brutal.

There... are those points in life when chaos reins, sometimes in fast forward motion that makes your head spin and your stomach sick.

There... is where everything feels out of control and our emotions are whiplashed by whatever excruciating circumstances life has handed us. We ask ourselves why? How did this happen? How did I get to this place?

I've been there many times. I tend to want to bust my way out of it, fix it NOW and feel better fast. But with some years behind me, I see that the these bottom places that suck the breath from our lungs, that leave us reeling in an emotional fetal ball, and that feel like a permanent parking place are really a launch pad. It's a perfect analogy for that place where you might be sitting right now, and if not now, certainly at some point down the road.

A launch pad is where the fire burns so blazing hot that you cannot breathe and the earth literally shakes around it. The heat is consuming and scary and it is all that you can see. But then there is motion. There is lift off. There is rising. It doesn't happen all at once. But if we are willing to face the fire and do the work for blast off, we will gain a different and sometimes life changing perspective.

If you are there, breathe deep, go deep and get through one day, one hour, one minute at a time. Pray. Talk. Be still. Be willing to work on the one thing you can control: yourself. Then you can rise above the fire and the ground shaking chaos and be delivered to the other side, made more whole, more loving, more compassionate and more you than ever before.

Underdogs, may you and I soar in the face of hard things. The journey is not easy, but it can be beautiful.

Peace, love and gratitude....