Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas
Every day is a new beginning, take a deep breath, smile, and start again. Winston Porter
If we want to do anything we have to start small. There will be the first time we give a presentation, go for a job interview, or put ourselves out in some small way. Everyone has to be a beginner before they become what they become. We sometimes think the small, halting first steps aren’t important, but what if they are the most important? Without the first step, the next steps don’t happen.
What if what we often do is worry about the next steps before the first steps are completed? We worry about publishing and agents before we’ve written the book. Life is a series of steps we take, and each person’s steps are different as is each person’s life. Even if we try and duplicate someone else’s steps we won’t get the same outcome necessarily. Sometimes we worry about failure before we’ve even tried, which of course guarantees it. Even if no one but ourselves knows we failed to try, we know, and we are one of the important people in our lives.
I was looking forward to putting on a “Storytime” later this summer, but it ended up not working out to the disappointment of me and other authors that were also going to read their books. We may still get the opportunity to do it, but something else has come up that I never expected. Sometimes we are going in one direction and we end up in another direction, but had we not been going in the first direction the second direction might never have happened.
Jim Rohn tells us, “Life has strange ways.” We need to be willing to ride the roller coaster of life. Disappointments will come, but maybe something better is also coming.
What if we find in the end that who we help and encourage on the road in life is the sum total of our lives? This is why being a parent is the biggest challenge in our lives, we are responsible for a whole person, and in some cases many people. As I watch our grandson not quite willing to take those first halting steps. He crawls up and down the stairs, and can get from one end of the house to the other in a flash by crawling. With speed like that, he might think who needs to walk?
A single tiny step you actually take is better than any big plan left undone. Jane Lee Logan
He’s playing the piano with two hands exuberantly, and one afternoon he went from the drum, playing piano, to the guitar, and xylophone, going from one to the other and back again. He is of course the most wonderful little boy we’ve had the pleasure of knowing, this is what every grandparent thinks. We hope as grandparents we can widen his horizons. He likes to look at the books I’ve written and he knows it’s my picture on the back cover.
Life is so wonderful when we have children and grandchildren to share it with. Even if no one outside of our family knows who we were if we raise our family to take their place in the world and they in turn do the same, we’ve done our part, we’ve made our contribution.
I look at Mom turning 99 this year, (We’ve started planning her 100th birthday for next year). What a life she has lived, what an array of children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and even great-great-grandchildren she has.
Sometimes it seems to me that we who grew up in easy, prosperous years are more pessimistic about the future than those who grew up in tough times. We think we, our children, or grandchildren couldn’t face those tough times and be okay. Those who have faced tough times know it is possible to get through tough times to better times.
Where do grit and fortitude come from? Are some born with it, or can we all develop it, and if we can all develop it, then why don’t we? I ask this as I think of people who give up when others trudge steadily onward. Part of life is making a decision about how we will handle what life throws at us. We might not like what is coming, but we have to deal with it, and if we can deal with it in a way that makes us and our families proud, I think we’ll all feel better in the end.
Courage is not having the strength to go on; it’s going on when you don’t have the strength. Theodore Roosevelt
The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and starting on the first one. Mark Twain
Don’t underestimate the power of small steps to build a great future. Jocelyn Soriano
Thank you for reading this post. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.
