Having always wanted to write, I awaited the day I’d get that fateful knock on my door.  Someone would come and ask me to write—pen something that would one day be as famous as the bible itself! And I would do it as they waited pensively; hearing only the soft hum of a choir of angels compelled to sing songs reminiscent of the Messiah’s coming. Then, in the aftermath of such glory, with a completed product in hand they would announce to the rest of the world that they had found, “She, who was written about in the days of old.”  They would offer me millions for the things I had to say and you know the rest….happily ever after, yada, yada, yada…

That is the way it happens, isn’t it? Well, in the time that has passed since I began dreaming of grand opportunities that would come my way effortlessly, I have learned a few things. The first lesson being, “it ain’t gon’ happen that way baby.” Of course I kid in providing you the imagery with which I had dreamed it would happen for me, but in so many ways don’t we do the same thing? We dream. We hope. We pray… We wait for the grand day.  However, in so doing we often miss, don’t take advantage of, or simply fail to create opportunities (however small), because we are waiting for the trumpets to blow. I don’t speak as though I talk to unmotivated people. I speak knowing that it happens to the best of us; even those of us who actively get what we want and make things happen in all other arenas.

I hadn’t even realized that my thinking was along those lines until one day I took the time to think about something a friend of mine was doing.  She wanted to be a writer.  She was and still continues to be very good at it. She and I weren’t very different in our aspirations or talents.  However, there was one very small difference between us. She actually wrote, and she shared what she wrote via a Myspace blog… Having a personal blog followed by fifteen to twenty of your closest friends may seem a small thing to some—especially when you’ve dreamed of having, “best seller” status, but is it really?  In watching her I was reminded of the simple adage, “Bloom where you are planted”.  Will a plant say it will not grow because it is in a pot and not a garden?… Neither should you.

The lesson I learned from this is to find whatever ways you can to exercise and/or display the talents that you have.  A band looking for a trumpeter will never pick a trumpeter who’s never blown his horn. If your talent is singing…do it from the rooftops. Tap dancing?…on street corners…Accounting?…with chalk on sidewalks….

                                     Just bloom where you are planted.