I first saw this quote in a newletter sent to my email inbox. I can’t find that newsletter now, although I know I purposed to keep it, specifically for the quote. But I found the quote again on Pinterest today, so I can still share it with you as today’s piece of “found wisdom”:

If you can’t fly then run.

If you can’t run then walk.

If you can’t walk then crawl.

But whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.

-Martin Luther King, Jr

I have come to recognize this is truth: strong truth, important truth, crucial truth.

I get spells when I just want to draw back and quit, let the bullies win and all that. Doing otherwise, keeping on going, fighting against the darkness can be so exhausting and feel so futile. But when I draw back, I get depressed, and I end up doing as much damage to myself inwardly thereby as whatever the bully was doing before—No,  correction: I think drawing back does more damage, much more.

So if you can’t “go walking,” just put one knee in front of the other–and ignore the bruising on the rocks. And give yourself a pat on the back at the same time (if you can do the contortion), giving yourself credit for the effort.

Also consider how interesting it is that progress really does often begin on our knees.

Step on, step on!

Or, crawl on, crawl on! Life’s struggles are not a speed race.

And when you begin to arise from your knees to your feet and take one step, then another, and start to climb, to move upward as well as forward, remember this additional MLK quote:

“Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.”