When my first son was born, the pediatrician told me to carefully watch his fingernails. Apparently, the color and growth of the nail bed provides clues to a child’s development. It’s a bad sign if you never need to trim a baby’s fingernails. I took that warning to heart and literally measured his nails to the mm every week, charting the results on a graph. By the time little brother came along, I wasn’t quite so anal, but I still watched for signs of normal growth.
This concept doesn’t just apply to babies, of course. Most growing things need to be reshaped occasionally. Trees need pruning and hair needs trimming to keep them healthy. So how about growing up? Is it possible we need to cut off some old habits, old haunts (hey, it’s almost Halloween), or old heartaches that may be hindering our normal growth; our positive progression?
It’s hard to move forward, carrying dead weight. And, honey, if it ain’t living, it’s dead. If he hasn’t called in three weeks, the relationship is dead. If you haven’t heard back from HR in 3 months, that job prospect is probably dead. Blah, blah, blah. You get the picture. Patient doesn’t mean paralyzed. Sure, maybe he is stuck in the world’s longest traffic jam where there’s no phone signal. Well, until he gets out of the twilight zone, you better live. Go to a festival. Go to church. Go to your friend’s party and dance with her bushy eye-browed brother. Just move. Often a social investment, no matter how small, leads to personal growth. Cause the truth is when you’re longing for something lost, moving before or after work takes all the strength you have. I know.
I also know you can’t grow, it you don’t trim away the false expectation that something dead is going to rise like a Phoenix from the ashes of your past. Cut your losses and count your blessings. As Henry Ford once opined, “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”
Your move, Cougar.
