It Takes a Beating

The story started out like this. 

It was all about a bowl, delicious ingredients and beaters like these. 

When I was growing up, we would watch the electric beaters combine ingredients in a large bowl. 

Sometimes there would be exact measurements of flour, eggs, milk and spices to take a beating as they were combined.  

Other times there would be cream, sugar and vanilla pulled together to create something sweet.

It would take a beating to make the single ingredients become more.

Each time, it would take a beating to make the single ingredients become more than what was seen at first. 

I would watch closely for times when the cream would double in size to be ready for the next question that might come. 

‘Do you want a beater?’ is what those of us waiting wanted to hear. 

It meant that the cream was fluffy, ready to top a dessert of the day and any creamy leftovers were up for a quick taste. 

Imagine the lip-smacking goodness that time brought in those two minutes!

Every drop of the tasty concoction would then disappear. Amazingly, smiles would appear every time. 

Can you see it alongside your memory of a treat that may have come together for you? 

Good memories are alive and well, even today, about that time. 

There were other stories that came as life showed that taking a beating means the ingredients can come bits at a time. 

Then they were mixed together to create something more.

They may even have come as experiences in life and not as things that could be placed neatly in a bowl. 

One time it looked like a series of events when it was as if the moment in front of me was not going well. 

I was taking a beating during a race.

The first time was when it felt like I was taking a beating during a race. 

One uphill was in an unexpected place and longer than what I had planned for before the start.

As I came to the top of the incline, my legs found sudden new energy. 

The determination to follow through had come to me after the tough run. 

Seeing the end of that race brought relief. 

Knowing I had run the race set before me had set me on a course for resilience and joy.

What a combination I had been introduced to as more was coming 

Taking a beating can also lead to creating something more.

I mixed up this experience with another one to show me that taking a beating can also lead to creating something more. 

If I can only wait for it. 

Here’s what it looked like next. 

Why is it that the times when I didn’t know what was coming is also when I found what I was looking for? 

It seemed to be the way it went when the story continued for me. 

There was no way to know that some races can come during life with running shoes on, like the one that was tough. 

Then others come that look like a mix of times that built strength in other ways. 

I was going into a time where doctors were being introduced to me regularly. 

It was a new realm that I found to be like going up the hills with a new stride, yet also like adding something that didn’t fit neatly to what I knew before. 

This went on for me as life created something more than sweet. 

Life was grand, wonderful and worth taking the beating.

Life was grand, wonderful and worth taking the beating as the next powerful moments have come. 

These moments came through my heart, soul and mind as the realm I loved changed with the seasons of life. 

Grief was a part of this piece.

Taking a beating took on new meaning as life became tougher than any race I had run. 

More intense than the stride I had known before, yet I still longed to hear certain words, or the name I love to hear. 

Here’s what I now know. 

While I was building strength to come through the intense climb of a physical hill, I was also building resilience to do other things. 

The beating my heart continues to take is now going in stride with the name I still love to hear. 

Even when I need to wait for it with the story that will go on with grief, resilience and joy.