Surviving the Shit Storm

The other day, I watched a video about a seed.

It was a simple story, but it stayed with me.

A tiny seed was planted in the ground with one simple purpose: to grow. It wanted to push through the soil, reach the sunlight, and eventually become a strong, beautiful tree.

But there was a problem.

A huge boulder sat directly above it.

No matter how hard that little seed tried, it couldn’t push through. It couldn’t move the boulder. It couldn’t simply choose an easier path. It was stuck.

• So, it had to wait.
• It had to survive.
• It had to be patient.

Through changing seasons, rain, cold, darkness and uncertainty, the seed remained beneath the soil. It probably looked like nothing was happening. From the outside, you wouldn’t have seen any progress at all.

But underneath the surface, something was happening.

The seed was growing roots. It was becoming stronger. It was learning how to survive.

Eventually, the boulder moved, and the seed finally found its way out of the soil. It grew toward the light, becoming a tall and strong tree.

Then one day, a storm came.

A huge storm with powerful winds.

The trees that had grown easily, without resistance, were blown over. They hadn’t been forced to develop deep roots. They hadn’t had to fight for their place in the ground.

But that one tree survived.

Why?

Because it had struggled.

The very thing that had seemed like a curse had actually been preparing it for the storm.

And maybe that’s the lesson we sometimes need to hear when life feels like one giant shit storm.

Sometimes, the obstacles in front of us aren’t there to stop us. Sometimes, they’re there to prepare us.

We get frustrated because we’re not where we think we should be. We look at other people and wonder why their lives seem to be moving forward while we’re still stuck underneath our own metaphorical boulder.

• We want everything to happen now.
• But maybe we’re not stuck.
• Maybe we’re growing roots.

Maybe the difficult season we’re in is teaching us patience. Maybe it’s teaching us resilience. Maybe it’s forcing us to discover strengths we didn’t know we had.

Taking things one day at a time can feel like failure when you’re desperate to see progress. But sometimes, simply getting through the day is progress.

You don’t always need to know how you’re going to get through the next year, the next month, or even the next week.

Sometimes you just need to survive today.

• Keep growing.
• Keep putting down roots.
• Keep going, even when you can’t see what’s happening beneath the surface.

Because one day, the boulder may move. The light will find you. And when you finally become the person you were meant to be, you’ll realise that the shit storms you survived weren’t just trying to break you.

They were making you stronger.

And when the next storm comes—and it will—you’ll have roots deep enough to stand.