It Takes a Lifetime to Live a Life...

"Maxima Enim... Patientia Virtus"

Latin: Patience is the Strongest Virtue

As you sit here reading this post, dark letters illuminated by the brightened backdrop of your computer, pda, tablet or other miscellaneous screen, you have there before you - if you care to realize - a reminder of just how quickly life moves. Information, that if you were let's say - at least 10, before 1996 - that it would have taken you hours to dig through encyclopedic volumes of reference books now is now just a couple of mouse clicks away, or as is more common today, sitting there in the palm of your hand readily accessible because... "you have an app for that".

Knowing that life moves at the speed of information in our current era can often times be daunting. We start feel pressured, feel as if we're left behind and so, we pressure others. It seems as if sometimes that the walls are closing in and we're left in the middle to perish before all four of them. As much as I try to avoid current events within my post, an era of prodigious joblessness that has moved the economic needle backwards at least a couple of notches in someway in the lives of many today, has sent minds, hearts and spirits in misdirected races (*think one cartoon character responding to anothers question of "which way did he go" by crossing his left over his right with each hand pointing in it's opposite direction*). Simply put: people are confused, and with confusion comes questions and when that confusion is compounded by the speed of information and thudding beat of economic declined, people are left lost, hurt; left in despair.

If you're in a rut today, in your mind, it may seem as if you may never climb out. We put so much value in the moment, that for some of us, it can sometime seem like all that matters - the end all be all. Those amongst us that have been affected by this frame of thinking have pushed themselves into the most drastic and dire positions at times; feeling as though their life is defined by this downtime, this one fleeting moment. Unfortunately do to these feelings that most often times are completely false and ill-conceived, some of those amonst us never allow themselves to climb out of their ruts.

But the truth is, if you're in a rut today, you're destined to climb out - if you want to. It may take sometime, it may take every ounce of effort and stregnth to do it - but if you want to climb out you will.

As daunting as the task may seem, we need to look no further than nature for proof; trees specifically. The life of a tree, which can span for some, hundreds of years, is one that faces and endures hardships and pain throughout. Starting out as just a seedling, with hopes to sprout, a tree in it's infacy has to vie for the same resoures as all other plant life, except it has yet to sprout the beautiful leaves that capture the sunlight and air that it needs to grow. The seedling just lies there defenseless, hoping that it gets its chance to grow just as the trees amongst it already have. Add to what's already a rough almost-existence, this seedling serves as perfect fodder to small ground dwelling insects, mammals, bugs as well as birds who leave their perch from the mighty mother and father trees above to peck around at some of the small snacks that the large flora provide. Those seedlings that were able to survive the first stage of challenges are met with even more as they sprout, begin to take root and enter the sapling stage. As a sapling, this young trees are open to even further abuse due to their new conspicous stature. At least as a seed, lying on the ground, they were some what hidden, but now as they've taken root, bigger prey and complications challenge the young plant for it's life. And as the sapling grows, the attacks become more dire - lightening, disease, human folly - but the tree becomes more immune. The small things that once challenged the tree for it's very life, now seek shelter beneath it and amongst its grown and growing branches. The tree now serves as the center of an ecology for the exact same (or descendents of) small mammals, insects, bugs and birds. It provides for all that who once would have taken from it, who did not see its purpose and could not understand what a great assesst it would be to all someday. The tree of course, always knew, that the only option was growth. The tree did not see the ways of those around it and stayed true to what it's own goal was, despite the disparity or discouragement of others.

The tree at one time had been in a rut; as a seedling it had been forced beneath the surface by the elements: the rain and earth that would mix together into an all encompassing, murky mire. The sun would come out to dry the mire and harden it some, trapping the seedling, burying it alive.

But seedlings, saplings, trees only know growth. So in spite of the elements that could have very well killed the seed at it's very beginning, it uses those same elements as components in it's quest for growth.

And the life of a tree, a seed, a sapling takes years and years...

So it is in this vein that I write this entry. Nothing happens over night. Things aren't always, and actually almost never - easy. And the things that don't kill you - in the trees case, rain, soil, sun (among other threats) - will undoubtedly make you stronger if you use them to your advantage. It takes a lifetime to live a life. It's so easy to get caught up and lost in the now, in the moment, but the reallity is, unless you plan to stop living today, then no matter how great or dispariging this moment may seem, it'll just be in the end, another moment in your life time, one to build on and grow from.

Sometimes it's hard to separate ourselves from the moment, but maybe, just maybe if we take a little time to appreciate the examples of others - even if it's a tree - we'll begin to respect our own process and understand that it really takes a lifetime to live a life.

Peace,

High 5!!!