Timing and Purpose

“Patience is power.

Patience is not an absence of action;

rather it is "timing"

it waits on the right time to act,

for the right principles

and in the right way.”

Bishop Fulton J. Sheen

“The common man prays, 'I want a cookie right now!' And God responds, 'If you'd listen to what I say, tomorrow it will bring you 100 cookies.”

Criss Jami

“Like a flower, we blossom when the conditions are right.”

Rita Said

I’m not sure why I’ve been delaying my writing.  It’s probably the same old Enemy I fight every time I sit in this chair.  I get filled with the same old questions, too: 

·      What do you have left to say?

·      Why don’t you go to bed?

·      Why don’t you give up?

·      Where is your Muse?

And so it goes.  And so I write.  It’s what I do.  And it is, in part at least, who I am.  Or at least it brings me in touch with who I am.  It’s what makes me special, but if I never wrote another word, I’d still be special.   But I’m going to write.  I’m going to write as much and as often as possible.  This is what I need to be doing.  This is what lifts me up and what calms me down.  I wish I had started doing this years ago.  I’m not sure why my Muse took so long. 

I tried to start a blog a few years ago, but I didn’t know what to write about then.  Perhaps I needed to experience certain things first.  Perhaps I wasn’t quite ready for my Muse.  Perhaps it was all a matter of timing.  Perhaps the right things happen at the right time.  Perhaps the timing is what makes them right.

Once I worked for months trying to get a job at a school.  I badly wanted this job.  The process was long and arduous and several times it looked hopeless.  Then it came down to one other candidate and me.  For reasons I never fully understood, they picked the other candidate.  I was crushed.  It was the only time I ever cried over not getting a job I’d wanted.  Even the people I knew on the inside were surprised, but no one really knew why.  Then a few weeks later a friend said the person they hired had more credentials than me.  This was only a guess, but based on that information, I decided to return to school and get my teaching credential.  On my first week back in school the organization called and hired me.  The person they hired didn’t work out.  In fact, he may have been one of the worst choices they ever made because he was fired after teaching only one class.

Here’s the most interesting thing though:  Had I been hired when I wanted to be hired, I would not have returned to school and I would have never gotten a teaching credential.  Not having a teaching credential would have changed my life drastically.  So it all happened at the right time.

My Muse showed up at the right time, too.  I can’t say that I yet understand the timing for her appearance.   It doesn’t matter.  I accept that there’s a reason and maybe I will find out.  The reason won’t affect anything I’ve done, I’m doing or that I will continue to do.  Even though the Enemy comes against me like clockwork, I sit here and write.  I Get Started and I Keep Going.  Sometimes it’s all I know how to do.  Perhaps my determination is better than my writing.  As long as that’s the case, I think my writing will get better, too.  It will also help me reach my goals.  Whether it does or not, there are few things better than sitting here and writing.

As I said, this makes me special.  It makes my life special.  I think we are all meant to be special, but some people want to hide that, perhaps from fear or laziness.  It takes work to be special.  It takes work to be in Purpose.  And it takes the right timing.  Until then, I just do the best I can.  I use well the time I have.  I Get Started and I Keep Going.  I keep writing.