Keep. On. Going.

I chatted with an Ecuadorian market owner today from my kitchen table. (Yay technology!)  Gabriela is 40 years old and the mother of two sons. She runs a small open-air tienda in El Carmen, Ecuador, and hocks coffee beans, vegetables and fresh fruits with funny names and textures unheard of here the United States. The shop is open almost always and the income just barely supports her family. It’s not a unique hustle; it’s just unique here in North America. Life in many places on this green and blue sphere is very hard.

This coming April will be the four-year anniversary of a devastating earthquake that shook Ecuador to its foundation. The temblor measured a 7.8 on the Richter scale and 700 people lost their lives, including Gabriela’s husband. In a matter of seconds she inherited the title of sole provider for her boys. A hard life suddenly became a whole lot harder.

Gabriela cried. Gabriela mourned. And then Gabriela kept going. She built a smaller store and continued the work her husband had started. Why didn’t Gabriela give up? Throw in the towel?

Gabriel said (in Spanish), “Where would I go?”

YOU ARE HERE. The sign at the mall tells us that. We are all in a specific place in a specific moment in the present. A reason puts us in that moment but the reason doesn’t have to define our next movement. Gabriela found herself in a moment and there was no place at that moment to be other than in that place.

At many points in our lives we find ourselves in very uncomfortable places. I am in one now as I search for my next job. But if I compare my situation to one like Gabriela’s, well, it’s not even close. But we each live in our present, and that is where we are meant to be in this moment. Living in the past can put an unhealthy mind into a place of guilt and regret. Living in the future casts that same mind into a land of uncertainty and fear. We cannot change either. But we can do ANYTHING in the present.

And maybe that’s the lesson. Gabriela couldn’t bring her husband back. She also couldn’t reach around the bend and see what the future was going to bring her. So she started to rebuild. Life is still difficult. There are loans to be repaid. And when you live on the Ring of Fire, earthquakes are inevitable. Over our lifetimes we will face a series of rebuilds, some more challenging than others. Some might even shake our foundations. It’s OK to cry. It’s OK to mourn. And it’s OK to keep going. Right now. In the present.