When The World Doesn’t Want You Up

When The World Doesn’t Want You Up

By Steve Gwisdalla

Originally Published 5/1/2025

Is it me, or does the world seem to be louder than ever these days? The literal and figurative shouting at everything going on seems to be at a near deafening level. This article, and the over one hundred before it shares a common theme. Up. Search for up. Search for up people. Search for up events. Then live up every day. Well, what happens when you are down? What happens when your tribe is in a funk? What happens when you cannot seem to find up anywhere around you and all you want to do is crawl into a corner somewhere and just hide?

Does this sound like anyone you know lately? Could it be you? I ask, because lately, it has been me too. As I sit here on a Sunday morning and write this article, I have quite the most interesting thank you to offer to help me out my down funk. A pheasant. Growing up, pheasants were everywhere. My summer job as a teenager was a golf caddy at a country club and pheasants were so plentiful that they were almost annoying. Fast forward to present day and it seems they aren’t as plentiful as they once were. The other morning, I was up incredibly early and as I was taking my trash can to the road, there in my front yard, ten feet away from my house was a lone pheasant. Just standing there. I thought the rumble of the plastic wheels from the trash can would scare him away. Nope. I thought lights from my truck would send him scurrying away. Nada. He just stood there, watching me. As I walked back from the road I started talking to him. Telling him how pretty he was and that he was a good pheasant. If any of you know what a pheasant call sounds like, it can be startling from twenty feet at five in the morning. This pheasant took a few steps towards me and called again. He wasn’t afraid in the least. He just stood there, looking right through me. I thanked him and went on my way. What does this have to do with the world not wanting me to be up? My friends, it is simple.

Beauty.

I try very hard to look for something wonderful and beautiful every day. Something that will offer me an up deposit in the old emotional bank account. Lately, that account has been running empty. Thanks to a bird, a pheasant of all creatures, I found pure beauty before the sunrise, and it filled me and my account up once again.

When struggles find you, when you cannot seem to escape darkness’s grasp and beauty is nowhere to be found, that single moment with a bird, whose species I haven’t seen in nearly forty years hit my up-reboot button for me. He helped me remember the answer. To get out of the down funk, be the beauty for someone else. Be someone else’s moment. In short, be the pheasant. These Tribe of Up articles have spoken many times about being the light in a dark room and advocating for more joy. Sometimes that is hard. Sometimes we do not want to. It is in those moments we must force ourselves to be the beauty for someone else to reignite their light. Does that make sense? When our light is at its most dim is when others need light the most. On a very early Friday morning, a single bird reminded me that beauty doesn’t have to be a mighty thing. It can be simple. It can be small. It just simply needs to be. After getting in my truck, I thanked God for sending that little pheasant and the spark it gave me. My friends, be the good someone else needs. Be a positive example for your kids, your spouse, your significant other, and your tribe. They need you. We will win the fight against the darkness one spark at a time. By being a spark for someone else, just maybe you can help them find their spark of up.

Steve is a Dexter resident and the Owner, Chief Pheasant Whisperer, Director of Spark Initiation, and all-around happy guy at Better Place Consulting, a coaching and consulting company focused on all things people. Reach out to him at steve@betterplacemgmt.com.