Hold Your Head Up

Today I remembered my late grandfather.

As a child, I could never understand him. I never knew what his words meant, and I often rejected what he was saying. Now, as an adult, his words sometimes come back. I do miss him, and there were things I never got to say and never will, but something tells me he would understand me if he were still here.

Having said that, I wanted to share some of his words with the world - something pretty simple and easy to dismiss at first, but whose wisdom comes after you give it a second, closer glance:

"Hold your head up!"

What did he mean by this? What's so special about holding your head high?

To better understand that, let's have a look at the opposite: holding your head down. When do we do this? When we, ourselves, are down. When we feel like life is unbearable. When we feel ashamed, inadequate, when we fear looking others in the eyes.

What he meant by this is: "No matter how bad you are feeling, how sad, how much pain you are in, always find the strength inside you to move on."

It's not about not feeling all of these things, because they are natural and part of our lives, but rather doing it in spite of them.

In other words:

"Find the strength inside you to smile in spite of the sadness."

So my message to you, dear reader, is simple:

Hold your head up!