Perseverance and Abundance

"Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th."

Julie Andrews

Acorns blanket the ground this time of year so that I have to step carefully in certain spots on the playground so my feet aren't carried away on some mad-scientist-squirrel acorn conveyor belt. Trust me. Its a riot. As I found myself tiptoeing through the piles the other day, I wondered why the trees have to make SO MANY. Wouldn't a hundred suffice instead of thousands? Apparently not.

Of course, the squirrels need some, which is abundantly clear as they embark on near-suicidal missions into preschool territory to claim their nutty stash. But surely the trees aren't really concerned about the welfare of the squirrels - its ultimately about the trees creating baby trees - and it seems to take a lot of acorns to make that happen.

Long story short, this got me thinking about ideas and perseverance. If you're like me, you've been told all your life about the benefits of sticking with things, seeing them through to the end, fighting the good fight, etc. etc. etc. That's usually the point in the conversation when I gaze out a window and start wondering how I'd survive the zombie apocalypse. But when my mind finally rejoins the discussion, I know the good-advice-givers are honestly trying to give good advice. Only problem - its half the story and doesn't apply across all situations.

Sometimes, the best thing to do is make more seeds. Acorns. Ideas. Paths. Make lots of them. Its like brainstorming your life. Sometimes the best thing to do is to let your leaves go and put your energy into new ideas (seeds) for the future. Its difficult to know when to hold on (spring and summer) and when to let go (fall and winter) but they are equally crucial parts of the cycle of growth and abundance.

The acorns also show us that in order to truly create something new in your life, whether it be a job, a relationship, or anything else under the sun, you need to generate lots of ideas and try many new things in order to find those few that will root and grow with the ravenous energy of new life. Are there areas of your life which are stagnating? Which areas would you like to transform? How can you start generating seeds for your own life, today, that will grow into beauty tomorrow?