Has your mom ever told you while forking down dinner, “slow and steady wins the race.”?
If a turtle races a rabbit, the rabbit will most likely win. However, what can we learn from a quick animal racing a slow turtle? We can learn that it’s okay to go slow. Gradually, with the mindset that “something is better than nothing” will still get us to the finish line. The moral of the story in a famous childhood fable teaches us a lot at a very young age. When I was deep in depression and recovery from a brain injury, I had to learn patience.
Since the very beginning of my recovery, I just wanted to run. However, I needed to walk first. I wish I realized life continues at my own pace.
Mathematically, the world works on a scientific scale. But I’m the one living in the world, so it moves on my terms. If I go slowly, if I learn to walk, then I can get the basics down. The same metaphor can be applied during my depression.
I couldn’t just “be fixed” by the flick of a wand. I’d have to move at a pace I was capable of to achieve happiness. Medicine would have to kick in, prayers would have to be said. But there wasn’t anything that I could do on my own to walk again. Just like how there wasn’t anything I could do on my own, solely, to be happy again. The turtle went at his own pace when he raced the hare.
Spoiler alert, the tortoise beats the fast hare because the hare took a nap. The tortoise didn’t train any differently to beat the hare. The finish line wasn’t moved. It was the same end goal for the tortoise as it was for the hare. They had the same goal–get to the finish line the quickest they can.
Once I learned to slow down, I could start digging myself out of a dark hole. Once I learned to put one foot in front of the other. I needed to listen to the therapist if I would get back to running. I had to use outside resources,not just myself, to gain back happiness.
I needed to learn from the tortoise to secure my happiness. There wasn’t anything I could do solely on my own. There wasn’t a workout to do or something to watch on TV to fix me. There wasn’t anything I could do ‘just me” to make me happy again. However, I would need to take medicine, talk to a therapist, pray to God, and use my family and friends to make me happy again.
With depression, just like with walking, I had a goal in the back of my mind. But I would have to learn I don’t have to do it all alone or on my own. I learned to accept the approach that “something is better than nothing” to be able to run again, to be happy again.
The tortoise beats the hare with outside factors taking place, The turtle wouldn’t have known the hare needed rest. He couldn’t do anything different to train for their race. I am still learning that I don’t have to do it on my own. Sometimes, everything happens the way it’s supposed to. The tortoise beats the hare.
