I watched my son struggle with a trick he wanted to do on the playground the other day.  He was frustrated because he’d been able to do it a few days prior but he struggled to replicate it on our most recent walk there.  I saw myself in him, the need to get it right immediately on that first try back at the playground.  I found myself telling him that it’s about making progress.  We both fixate on the end result and struggle with what it takes to get there.  I struggle because I feel there is a specific reward for specific action and he struggles because he conceptually understands things but doesn’t know how to practically get there—and he expects to have it on the first try.  We both struggle with that, actually.  But I felt a certain wisdom channel through me and I also told him, “When you don’t get it right away there’s an opportunity to learn something new or to get better at doing it.”  Something I need to practice/remember myself, as well.  

But right now we are here in Spring, the trees are budding and it’s a new beginning.  This is an opportunity for all of us to appreciate where we are at in the journey and to appreciate it.  The more present we are and the more we can accept and understand what we need to improve upon (heck, even what we need to do next) the easier it is to adapt, learn and integrate so we can improve.  Will Wonka said “Invention my dear friends is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butter scotch ripple.” (thank you Gene Wilder 😊).  The reason this stands out is because it’s about the effort, the learning, the adaptation of what we are creating that matters.  It isn’t the end product that comes first, it’s the creation of it.  And the truth is that we can’t get to the end without learning what we need to first.  If the goal is to get to the end, we will miss all the living in between—and that means we miss the opportunities to learn and potentially make something even better.  So take time to be where we are, take time to learn.  Life is a big experiment anyway—we all end up in the same place, so we might as well make it an adventure while we are here.  Have fun.