Today's Quotation:

The aster has not wasted spring and summer because it has
not blossomed.  It has been all the time preparing for what is
to follow, and in autumn it is the glory of the field,
and only the frost lays it low.  So there are many
people who must live forty or fifty years, and have the crude
sap of their natural dispositions changed and sweetened
before the blossoming time can come; but their lives
have not been wasted.

Henry Ward Beecher

Today's Meditation:

Some people peak very early, and many of them are in the public spotlight at a very young age.  Musicians who make popular music, athletes, and actors and actresses are among the people who hit great heights at very early ages.

Most of us, though, take more time to hit our peaks.  Most people can't expect to hit their highest heights until they're well into their thirties or forties, for they've then hit a point at which they can give a very mature, very valuable contribution to the world.  Most of the music written by twenty-year-olds is simply immature and self-indulgent, for the songwriters haven't had enough life experience to allow them to write anything that's not a copy of other songs that they've heard.  Most very young athletes know only athletics, and they tend to get lost in other areas of their lives--how many of them ruin their athletic careers by making the decision to use performance-enhancing drugs in their training?

There's absolutely nothing wrong with blooming late.  All this means is that we've been spending time learning and living, and that our contribution therefore is more balanced, more mature, more loving, less self-centered or self-serving.  And if that's the case, then this contribution can help more people in more ways, which is one of the best gifts we can give to anyone.

Perhaps you haven't hit your peak yet, and your time of blooming has not yet arrived.  Be patient, and keep living and learning.  Your time will come, and when it does, it will be as beautiful as the asters in the autumn, the asters who have waited patiently all through spring and summer while the other flowers all were showing off their beauty.

Questions to ponder:

1.  Have you known people who have reached their peak late in life?
What have they contributed to your life?

2.  Why could it be better to wait patiently to bloom in our own time
rather than trying to hurry the process along?

3.  Is anything truly gained by blooming before our time?

Nothing great is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes
or a fig.  If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer that there must be time.  Let the tree first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.

Epictetus