When you’re up against a trouble,/ Meet it squarely, face to face;/ Lift your chin and set your shoulders,/ Plant your feet and take a brace./ When it’s vain to try to dodge it,/ Do the best that you can do;/ You may fail, but you may conquer,/ See it through!

Edgar Guest, See It Through

I need to hear this right now. Right this very moment. I need to remember I am made of the stuff that trusts, believes, acts, remembers, learns, builds, creates. I am more yes than no. I practice planting my feet and facing the sun. For the most part, I have a see it through constitution.

What does it mean to see it through? Beyond simply not giving up, seeing it through means showing up and staying. Seeing it through means the beginning, middle, and end. Seeing it through is not wedded to particular outcomes. Seeing it through means valuing failure. Seeing it through means we believe the best is yet to come (otherwise we would quit, and quitting is not an option when we see things through).

Several sayings have a see it through sensibility – stay the course, just keep swimming, it I always darkest before the dawn, when doors close windows open, just put one foot in front of the other. Fundamentally, seeing it through is about hope. It is about, way down deep, believing that are actions are important and can lead us to be the people we want to be and create the world we want to create. We see it through because we can do nothing else. Seeing it through is up to us.