As an avid Scrabble enthusiast, I've learned to wait until the just-right moment to use a valuable word or letter. The best players do that. I'm also using this valuable lesson when it comes to living a good life. As we live our lives, sometimes it is better to simply wait it out until the right opportunity comes. While this isn't always true, for my life, right now, it is true.
I sense an opportunity down the road that I'm getting ready for. I'm shoring up all the lose pieces around me with countless, somewhat dull tasks and efforts, because I know that an opportunity awaits once this work is done. What will this opportunity be?
I remember when this happened to me a long time ago. Similarly, I was shoring up countless, somewhat dull tasks in preparation for what would come which ended up to be a 34-year career in teaching. Before I became a teacher there was a time of preparation and discovery. When the journey began, I didn't know what was ahead, but I had a sense about what it might be--I knew I was headed somewhere.
This next step, whatever it will be, will be another meaningful step as teaching was. It may be a very simple and unnoticeable step, but it will be significant since I can feel the importance of the needed personal and environmental prep.
I believe our lives are a series of hills, valleys, plains, and plateaus. Like the landscape around us, each feature has something to teach us and demands varying kinds of energy and mindsets. As I work up a small hill these days, I have the time to look around. While not as exciting an ascent as steeper hills or wonderful summits in the past, this steady incline is an important leg of life's journey, an important preparation period for the next investment.
So I'll continue on this past with best effort and intention. I'll look forward to reading this post years from now when I understand what this waiting game was all about. Onward.