I owe my love of history to my Grandma Buers.  Not sure how she did it, but she instilled in me the desire to learn history.  That love/desire was further cemented in my formative years of living in Austria.
A couple of years ago in Boston, Massachusetts I decided to follow the Freedom Trail , a unique collection of museums, churches, meeting houses, burying grounds, parks, a ship, and historic markers that tell the story of the American Revolution. My trail finished at Bunker Hill. 

I visited the Bunker Hill Museum and was fascinated with all there was to learn.  But, it was a panel depicting Alonzo Chappel’s painting of the Battle of Bunker Hill (pictured above) that was the most inspiring to me. I learned the Battle of Bunker Hill was comprised not of one…not two…but three attacks by the British, before being taken.  The purpose and conviction with which the militiamen fought was incredible.  Alonozo’s painting depicts the final third attack, portraying the militiamen swinging their rifles as clubs, throwing rocks…whatever it took to stand their ground for a cause the believed in.

That evening in my hotel as I journaled my thoughts of those men fighting repeatedly getting up again to hold on to what they believed in came down to one key ingredient in getting back up again – conviction.

• Conviction keeps us going in light of uncertainty and answers the “What if” in life.
• Conviction overcomes our natural tendency to fear that which we do not know.
• Conviction keeps us deeply rooted when the changes in life blow around us.

The road well traveled is filled with good intentions, fast starts, awesome dreams. The road less traveled is walked by those who, when those great intentions hit roadblocks…get back up again.  When they stumble and fall on a fast start…get back up again.  When their awesome dreams are shattered…get back up again.  Standing in front of that painting I resolved to get back up again for those things I truly believed in.  One of the ways I am getting back up again? I started this blog last year, but really never spent the time and energy to get it really up and running. Now, I’ve jumped in the deep end am embarking on this new road and am determined see this site come to fruition and become an extension of this road I am on.

How about you?  What has been your experience with getting back up again?