Nature always takes her time. Great oaks don’t become great overnight. They also lose a lot of leaves, branches and bark in the process of becoming great. Diamonds aren’t formed in a week either. Everything of value, of beauty, of majesty in the universe took time to become so. So it will be with our own growth and development. Let us recognize the way things work down here, and so be gentler on ourselves when assessing our own progress. It takes time to build confidence, to build a healthy body or a positive outlook. It takes time to build a business of value or to create our own financial independence. In the real world there are very few instant, overnight successes. Inner work is a life-style.

CYCLES
As sure as the earth revolves around the sun and winter follows the spring, so must our life move in cycles. So there will always be easy times and there will be hard times, as sure as one season follows another. One of the great challenges of life is dealing with the winter while you are waiting for things to get better. Things will get better. They always do. The trouble is that many people give up and go home too early. The tide will always turn.

REST
Nature has a rest from time to time. The soil needs a rest, bears and snakes hibernate; even fish sleep with their eyes open. We can learn from this approach. We need to take time out; to rest, to review, to ponder, to be. If you decide that you are indispensable and that you must always have your nose to the grindstone, then you can live your life like that. Your belief that you can never rest will be your reality until such time as you decide differently. When we do make rest a part of our life-style, like the soil we become so much more productive when we work. Having said this, I believe that as humans we are engineered for enterprise and activity.