“They” (being everyone from the Christians, ‘As ye sow so shall ye reap’, to the Hindus… karma… to the New Age folks… ‘manifesting’,) all say the same thing essentially: what you do comes back to you.
Thing is, the slight fallacy in all that is that it’s rarely an exact equation or in the time-frame or form you had visualized (because as much as we’d like to be, we are NOT in control).
The analogy I’ve invented to myself is this: say you plant an apple orchard. You choose good healthy hearty root stock, appriopriate to your climate. You nurture the heck out of those trees… manuring them, disking the ground between, making sure tehy’re adequately watered, pruning religiously, et al. They’re supposed to start bearing in three years.
Three years come and go, and, sadly – you harvest ONE apple and its taste and texture are decidedly blehhhh.
Naturally you find this incomprehensible and are totally disappointed.
The next week, the Fed Ex guy shows up on your doorstep with a case of organic Georgia peaches, no gift tag attached. Another couple of weeks, a similar box of ruby-red grapefruit. This goes on for awhile.
Then, eventually your ortchard bears fruit. Or maybe it doesn’t… but in any case, what you do has come back to you albeit bizarrely, mysteriously. As you sow so shall ye reap doesn’t mean you reap the exact fruits you planted – it just means you get fruit, of some sort, when you need it.
All by way of saying: some of the seeds I planted that germinated ARE coming up. Many aren’t.
But instead, some other stuff, unlooked for, has arrived. Two metaphorical Fed Ex packages, one small, one large.
- The small Fed Ex box: associaition of professionals in my field sent me a letter asking me to submit my info to their directory of those who do public speaking, workshops, presentations, etc. This will come out in the fall and go to hundreds of possible people and venues.
- The big Fed Ex box: I got asked to join faculty at an every-two-years conference in my field. The facility/ venue, is literally the stuff of legends, the pay is quite good (although they work you like a horse… a Percheron or other draft horse), but the work itself is TERRIFIC and energizing, and the networking oppoprtunities will be unequalled. This won’t take place until next summer (2007) (geesh, are the years not HURTLING by?)... but it oh so good. Good for my heart and soul and brain… on another, less important but still significant level, good on my resume!
This “experience hog at the trough of life” (as my late husband and I used to sometimes refer to each other, followed by making enthusoastic grunts and oinks) is dancing on her trotters! 6 years ago