After the long night, whichever way we are pushing through, whether healing, joyous reverie, or building something, there is a finish line driven by the rising sun. As the light peeks over the edge of our world, we made it, we survived, and we collapse into an ecstatic nap, and rest. We did it.

We push our minds, our bodies, and our souls, so that our spirits may soar. The hard work is being done to make ourselves, and our communities, and our world a better place. We are creators after all, for the most part.

It's in the 20th mile of the Marathon that we see are true selves, will we make it? Will we succeed? Will we break? We carry on, the finish line starting to come into our relative perspective. The light at the end of the tunnel reveals itself.

This piece was driven by the many nights I've pushed myself toward a deadline, but the core of it came one night I was pushing myself at a musical event deep in the woods. The music was driving us until dawn, exhausted we kept pushing to see the sun rise. None of us gave up.

Together, we danced, and the rhythms and patterns in the music carried us like a wave. When the sunlight started flooding the sky over the mountaintops of the rainforest we were in, a new wind filled our sails and we grew stronger with the coming light.

Finally, the sun leaped over the mountain and into the sky, and we all cheered, we made it. Together. Hugged each other, and felt an amount of joy flood through us, not many ever do, not many ever get this far. We finally release and fell into our beds, and slept like we never slept before. When we woke, we were born anew.

In many ways, we can practice this in our lives, both for positive and negative endeavors. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger is such a cliché, but's honestly true. When we finally see what we are made of, we come into our own realization that we have it within us to achieve our dreams. And its the most powerful feeling in the universe.