All members of creation travel through life experiencing conflict at times. Conflict can be physical, mental or spiritual. Though these are all subtly different, they are all the same as well. In all forms of conflict, we are confronted with a choice to make. Here in the sphere of confrontation, a few of us can claim alumni to the school of hard knocks. I am just one from many here.
I vividly recall my first physical altercation with the neighborhood kids. This was my first real fight; my first physical experience with a harmful confrontation. I found myself surrounded by much larger and older kids, in the old fashioned fight circle, being pushed around at random; outnumbered by 6.
Though I was a fast kid, I wasn’t able to escape. After taking a few blows to the face and neck, I found the myself on the ground, being kicked and punched repeatedly. I was able to fend off a few kicks enough to stand, throw a good punch, break free and run nearly a mile back home. All the while the other kids chased me through the field.
This was a painful experience. It was only my first and it certainly wasn’t the last. Though the pain that it caused hurt physically, I believe this is no match at all for the pain that is felt when the heart breaks, or when the spirit is broken.
When the sphere of confrontation is visited, it brings with it choices. At times, these choices must be made swiftly; fight or flight. In my experience, before I walked by that group of older kids I knew there was a possibility for conflict, yet I pressed forward because they were on my path toward home.
Many can avoid confrontation, but confrontation and conflict cannot be avoided forever, especially if it blocks your path to home. You will have to face this sphere at one point or another. In avoiding conflict, we may actually be causing it.
No matter your confrontation, stand tall and face it. Trust your instincts and your heart. The knocks from this sphere can be hard, but its a school that teaches growth and strength.
HeartSphere 
great insight and advice.
Thanks for sharing.
Your topics are interesting and insightful… It’s always been hard for me to avoid personal confrontation…but I’m getting better at choosing my battles…emotionally speaking…makes me want to make a photograph about it …thanks for the inspiration!
Thank you, and you’re very welcome! 🙂
And remember to feed the good wolf, not the bad one.
True..Indeed!
good stuff
This is so wisely said and elegantly wrote. And always to be reminded of in life.
Your story brought me back. These five kids would occasionally chase me and my cousin from school to our houses. We’d get lucky a few times and hide under a car or beat them to our house, but on those other times, we’d have to slug it out. I don’t remember getting beat really bad, but I know I took a few punches back then. Good times…
Yep, good times.. Made the way home from school an adventure in itself.
Knowing which confrontations will result in more harm than good is the difficult part for me.
I agree, its generally never an easy choice. But we never know until we make the choice.
Confronting difficult situations is something I always try to avoid. Confrontation is necessary to get done with them, but it is just hopeless for me to stand and confront whatsoever comes in my way.
Many people do, usually out of fear, insecurity or self preservation. Personally, I find that if you avoid it, it will show up again and again until you deal with it.
Bringing back some early thoughts that taught life lessons. I can even see the scene from an altered overview of what happened.
Your story helped me to heal a little bit more, even if I thought I was done. Love Raw ohmmmmmm
Timely, for me. Thank you.
“In avoiding conflict, we may actually be causing it.” – truth!
My head and heart fight a lot … but sometimes they just have to battle it out
Reblogged this on The World I Live In.
I love how insightful your posts are and I definitely agree with what you say. We can only confront so much of the conflicts we are faced with and the other parts we can’t confront and immediately solve (maybe due to our current circumstances) is to believe and trust that what we learn will eventually be revealed to us with time. Sometimes (as you may see in my blog) it takes years and years but the realizations we acquire will last us a lifetime. Whats more beautiful is we can share what we learn (like you have) to lessen the burden of other people who are faced with the same challenges.
growth and strength… I’m holding on to that.
Ah, I have just received some healing from some hard knocks I received last evening at a committee meeting because I did stick to what my instincts told me was right. I am receiving intuitions right now that tell me these positions will bring me closer to people that matter, with whom I am intended to enter into collaborative efforts for the greater good.
Thank you for this timely post. It was definitely one I needed to read at this transitional point in my life.
My 5 year old has a collection of animated children’s movies that she watches over and over and insists that we watch together. LOL I don’t mind at all. In Kung Fu Panda, Master Oogway has a saying: “One often meets his destiny on the path he seeks to avoid it.” Having heard the saying so many times lol I was thinking about it while reading your post, then I got to the part where you said: “In avoiding conflict, we may actually be causing it.” Good Stuff! 🙂
Very good life lesson, here! Though my heart broke for the bullied child who had to learn about “pushing through” way too soon~~
knowthesphere. Some knocks can be quite hard they just leave you breatheless. It is good to learn to listen to one’s instinct and one’s heart. They are never wrong.Thanks for the inspiration.
I had a simlar experience as a child. I remeber it now, running as fast as I could to get away. And I did, just. I can remeber crying as I felt so sick and scared. Thanks for sharing, and I have shared on my facebok 🙂
Reblogged this on angelgirl1976 and commented:
This is a very insightful blog by a very good blogger Knowthesphere. Please take a look 🙂
Amen. I personally have been lucky enough to have talked / bs’d my way enough to avoid a serious ass whooping like yours described above thus far (it has come close and it helps to have a bat a close hand!) but the same can be said just the same for mental altercations and life’s hurdles. I like to see it like this… I got a bunch of em out of the way early on (which helped in solving some of the more complex ones that happened to come later as well as which ones to just not waist the time on), and my geriatric years, should i happen to be lucky enough to reach, should be sweet sunshine! 😉
There is a road least traveled, friend, where confrontation and conflict are unnecessary, and where one is never ever far from home.
Confrontation and conflict are necessary evils in the low road which is the “human condition,” but we always have a choice every moment in our lives to leave that road and to take the high road instead — in particular, the “road least traveled” (This is the proverbial choice between the wide and easy path versus the hard and narrow path.). Along that other road, transcendence is the modality of action in place of confrontation and conflict.
On the “road least traveled,” one never leaves home because home is always right where one is. Thus, there is no need to have “to go home” at any point in life and face the risks and perils that might arise on the way between us and our home.
As a very young boy, I was bullied at school several times by the same set of classmates, for no reason other than their simply choosing to pick on chubby me. I gave no provocation. It was a classic case of pure bullying. It only stopped when I finally fought back each of my oppressors, one at a time, on different occasions, at moments when the bully least expected a retaliation from me. (Yes, the episode taught me how to be cunning and crafty.) As in your case, the experience was physically painful and emotionally hurtful. In the years to come, it left me emotionally wounded and scarred with on-off feelings of being socially unaccepted and of not belonging (a misfit) and of being unworthy or inferior, in short a whole lot of low self-esteem.
However, the same experience became a catalyst together with other episodes in my life that later thrust me into a personal search for truth and meaning in life. This eventually led me to the “road least traveled” where I found wholeness and healing, where I learned the truth about life and myself, that the world and the human condition had denied me and will always deny me. On that road, I discovered that the only worthwhile confrontations and conflicts were the ones with myself and within myself.
Friend, find that road and take it.
“This eventually led me to the “road least traveled” where I found wholeness and healing, where I learned the truth about life and myself, that the world and the human condition had denied me and will always deny me.”
The “truth about life” must have been wonderful to find. If you have found your truth, then I am happy for you. But you must understand that all paths and truths are different, unique and necessary to every seeker. These are his experiences and his alone, no one can travel your road or find truth but you.
If you have gained understanding of yours, then I am happy for you. But, many paths have many bends and turns. To claim to understand anything you must first admit that you understand very little, or in fact nothing at all. We are all students here. I personally see any dogmatic belief such as the mystical notions you believe in as being helpful. But I do not subscribe to dogma, I am fully aware of it and know that nobody really “knows.” I recognize it only and see at all angles hoping to find any truth that it brings, then I move on.
Yes sometimes you just have to stand and fight because there is nowhere else to run
Very well written.
Found you through Angie – great post and so very true – the school of hard knocks teaches us about life – adventure and LOVE…..
In gratitude,
Nancy
hi, i really like your insight. there are always conflicts in our daily life, we need to make a choice to face or not to face them. nice!
Nice piece.That is life.Conflicts and confrontations are unavoidable but they make us better sometimes.
That is true. Confrontation sometimes is necessary. You can face confrontations without compromising your values and beliefs in the moral or spiritual sense, at times you have to stand for it.
Great post! 🙂
“In avoiding conflict, we may actually be causing it.”
Very powederful words. In many of my experiences these words ring very true. Great post!
I really appreciated this post. It’s just what I needed to read this evening. And thanks for the blog follow, especially since I’ve been blogging through music and not many words of my own lately.