Welcome to another article of mine, made with all these midnight thoughts.
Most of my articles are from personal experiences, thoughts and realizations but I am really trying to make my every article worthy of your time and as much as possible, I want you to have some takeaways from my articles.
People at Your Back
Have you ever experienced hearing someone, maybe a friend of yours, a family member, or any person that is close to you heart told you that "we got your back" or "I got your back"?
If yes, I know you can relate to me when I said that it feels so good. To know that there are people behind your back. Your people. The people who supports you on your every decision and the same people that is just waiting for you to fall.
It's not that they want you to fail though, they are just waiting, like being on stand by, ready to catch you whenever you fall.
Failure is inevitable but you won't fall so hard when you have these people behind your back. Your support systems.
I am trying to think deeper with the word "back". I tried searching for it's definition and symbolism but I can't find anything relatable so I tried thinking of my own meaning about it.
People at our back guides us
These past few days, I have been teaching my older sister how to ride a bike. She's a 35 year old beginner. And how do I teach her? I guide her from the back.
I know that it's just the usual way of teaching someone on riding a bike but as I think through it, as I think on why am I at her back and not on the side, I have these realizations.
When i'm at her back, i'll be able to see what's ahead of her. I will know whether she can continue or we should go the other way. Just like what I've said, she's a newbie so when she ride the bike, all her attention was focused on balancing herself so that she won't fall. She won't really notice what's on her front. She wouldn't know when to stop and her direction is pointless.
My goal at her back is to keep her balance and to look ahead for the both of us. I'll see in advance if the road is clear to give her the go signal. I make sure that she is going in the right way before I let her go on her journey. I ensure that she won't fall down on the path that she is taking.
In short, the people at our back supports us on our decisions and directions knowing that we are going on the right path. They may be behind but they are more focused that us. They already see what's ahead of us. And in case that there's a dump on the road that we're taking, they are just on our back, cheering on us, making sure that we won't fall.
People at our back leads us
I know this has some similarities with the number one but leading is different from guiding. Both implies a move forward but the participation level is different.
As to what I've read, guiding comes from the learner's initiative while leading comes from the leader, or the person which we are learning from.
In my point number one, I have explained how I teach my sister on riding the bike. And as you can see, I am teaching her by just staying in her back. The determination comes from here. She goes first and I just follow her. I guide her to the right direction but I don't lead her.
Going back to leading, at this case, I can compare it to how our support systems encourages us.
Sometimes, when we are having a hard time making a decision, we sometimes consult the people we trust to help us. And really, having heard their opinions is such a delight. It's like they opened closed doors and makes us see many possibilities.
And when we are afraid to take our first steps, they sometimes do it themselves. Just to let us see that it's not scary or even when it's scary, if they can do it, we can. They are like making a demonstration that we can follow.
Or sometimes they direct us on what to do. There are times when they are just supporting our decisions, like when they are guiding us and that's because they already see what's ahead of us.
But if they know that we're not on the right track, they won't hesitate to give is "real talks", such honest talks and would directly tell us to go to the other direction instead.
They lead us in a way that they are pointing to us which paths to take.
People at our back catches us
All decisions have it's risk. They can guide and lead us but failure is unavoidable. We will fall, at an unexpected time and place. But what's good in this part is knowing that we have people at our back. People that would catch us.
We can go on every paths that we wanna take but these people, our people will always at our back. There are times that we won't even feel that they are there but we surely won't missed them on our lowest moments.
With them, we do not need to fall hard. We will still get hurt of course, but they share our pain. They'll take some of it, they'll fall with us, and they'll rise again with us.
"No man is an island". This might be cliche but this surely never gets old.
We fall, we fail, but we're not alone.
If you feel like one, like you're alone, go find your people. Do not carry the burden alone. Look at your surroundings. There can be at least one or two who wants to share your pain, your burdens and sufferings. You do not need to suffer alone.
And most importantly, as I end this article, I wanna leave you with this verse to ponder;
Proverbs 3:5-6: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight."
The Lord is our greatest leader and guide. He will never fail you. All you have to do is to follow the track which He have prepared for you beforehand.
=)
Thank you for sharing this! There always be people who get our back and there always be people who will need support from us. Unfortunately sometimes who has support from us they forget it and later they turn against you. Of course it is not always the case, but we have to be careful who we support.