A friend shared with me a thought about an acorn that has the potential to become a huge oak tree. In the process of becoming an oak tree, the acorn doesn’t scurry around searching for leaf molecules and bark molecules to build this tree – it simply exists where it is planted, and has access to absolutely everything that it needs right there. Everything that you need for success is immediately available to you. Sometimes we have to just start noticing the resources that are already abundant around us. Notice what you have going for you and feel gratitude for it – the rest will come.
Do what you can,
With what you have,
Where you are.
– Theodore Roosevelt
After reading ‘Where You Are’. I was compelled to recite one of the best poems in line with this thinking.
Good Timber
The tree that never had to fight
For sun and sky and air and light,
But stood out in the open plain
And always got its share of rain,
Never became a forest king
But lived and died a scrubby thing.
The man who never had to toil
To gain and farm his patch of soil,
Who never had to win his share
Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man
But lived and died as he began.
Good timber does not grow with ease,
The stronger wind, the stronger trees,
The further sky, the greater length,
The more the storm the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow.
Where thickest lies the forest growth
We find the patriarchs of both.
And they hold counsel with the stars
Whose broken branches show the scars
Of many winds and much of strife.
This is the common law of life.
by Douglas Malloch
How Long Does It Take?
How long does it take to grow?
How long does it take to change?
How long does it take to cross the
line that holds you with it’s chains?
How long does it take to be
what you know in your heart you are?
How long does it take to get out of yourself,
to be that shining star?
As long as you want.
by Donna Lawyer
Dr. Paul, this is an excellent line of thinking. It can be difficult (especially in times like these) to see opportunities. However, if we keep a positive outlook and carefully observe, we will see openings that will lead us to new opportunities. -Michael