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<\/a>At times we seem stuck. Maybe you\u2019re waiting to finish your degree or you\u2019re waiting for your kids to finish theirs\u2026 or in my case, waiting for your spouse to finish hers. Maybe you\u2019ve got other family or career obligations that keep you from devoting your full attention to your goals and dreams. This is a time to bloom where you\u2019re planted.<\/p>\nOnce upon a time, I was a 20-something who had recently graduated from college, got a good job, got married, built a house, and couldn\u2019t understand why I was miserable. I felt like I was waiting for something\u2026 which I was. I just didn\u2019t know what I was waiting on. Well, after wallowing in self-pity for so long that Cathy insisted I do something, I went to talk to our Methodist minister. Rev. Bob Vickery was a retired Army chaplain who had done three tours of duty in Vietnam, and he had some stories that would have been a lot more at home in one of our CUUPS circles than in a Methodist Sunday School. He was one of those people who made you feel better just talking with him \u2013 you knew you had his full attention, and you knew he had enough wisdom and experience to point you in the right direction.<\/p>\n
So I talked to Bob and he told me something I\u2019ve always remembered: \u201cThey say that good things come to those who wait. That\u2019s a lie. Good things come to those who hustle while they wait.\u201d And he was very right. We can look at \u201cwait time\u201d as a trial to be endured, or we can bloom where we\u2019re planted and look at it as an opportunity to get ready for the next big thing in our lives, whatever that may be.<\/p>\n
In my case I didn\u2019t feel all better right away \u2013 I still had quite a few years of growing up to do, and quite a bit more of life to experience before I could begin to put things in perspective. But I did start graduate school that fall, and that degree opened a series of doors that eventually led me to Dallas, which eventually led me here.<\/p>\n
Now, it turns out Bob got the \u201chustle while you wait\u201d quote from Thomas Edison, and I can\u2019t imagine a better example of that principle. Edison once said: \u201cI haven\u2019t failed, I\u2019ve found 10,000 ways that don\u2019t work.\u201d Edison\u2019s accomplishments are a monument to perseverance and hard work; to blooming where you\u2019re planted, even if the soil is rocky and the weather is dry.<\/p>\n
Edison also said \u201cAll Bibles are man-made,\u201d but we\u2019ve already talked enough about that today.<\/p>\n
We can\u2019t all be heroes, but we can bloom where we\u2019re planted. We live in a culture that worships fame and celebrity, and it doesn\u2019t seem to matter if you\u2019re famous for doing something great or for doing something horrible or if you\u2019re famous for being famous. Why else would people with even less singing talent than me humiliate themselves for a few minutes on American Idol?<\/p>\n
Not all of us \u2013 hopefully, none of us here \u2013 are that shallow. But still, we read about true heroes or people who are doing great things and it\u2019s easy to feel like our own lives just aren\u2019t good enough. But when Mother Teresa received the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize, she was asked, \u201cWhat can we do to promote world peace?\u201d Her answer was \u201cGo home and love your family.\u201d<\/p>\n
We\u2019re not all called to be famous heroes \u2013 some of us are called to be everyday heroes; people who make a small but meaningful difference in the lives of others. When we bloom where we\u2019re planted, we begin to change the world for the better, one person at a time.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We\u2019re not all called to be famous heroes \u2013 some of us are called to be everyday heroes; people who make a small but meaningful difference in the lives of others. When we bloom where we\u2019re planted, we begin to change the world for the better, one person at a time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":1035,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[946,64,4,5,19],"class_list":["post-1034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-practice","tag-cuups","tag-nature-2","tag-pagan","tag-paganism","tag-unitarian-universalism"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>At times we seem stuck. Maybe you\u2019re waiting to finish your degree or you\u2019re waiting for your kids to finish theirs\u2026 or in my case, waiting for your spouse to finish hers. Maybe you\u2019ve got other family or career obligations that keep you from devoting your full attention to your goals and dreams. This is a time to bloom where you\u2019re planted.<\/p>\n