Immersing in Challenge
August 2005



Circling the lake
How long do we circle the lake, looking at it, wondering what it holds? If it is cold, if it will be rejuvenating, if the treasure is hidden there, if we can handle the shock of the cold, if we’ll be disappointed. We sense we’ll feel refreshed afterwards, but often stall even touching a toe to water.

And so growth is like a mountain lake. We might circle it for minutes, hours, days or even years, wondering what it would be like to go in, to immerse, the quick gasp of breath. The uncertain anticipation may be enough to keep us from the exhilarating experience.

Are you in or out?
In what ways are you circling the lake in your life? How is it that you might be trying to circumvent some area of difficulty, challenge, pain, sadness, risk because you’re not sure you can handle what might come of the immersing in it? Perhaps you feel your heart will stop or that you’ll freeze up and no longer be able to function, or you’ll feel too much and it might overwhelm you.

If you wish to live fully, it is time you consider getting wet. Know that you can handle the challenges and tests that have been placed before you. Patience is a key to unlocking not only your potential, but innumerable, unseen opportunities.

Nature takes its time
What is difficult for most of us is the waiting. We feel the fear, dive in the water, whoop, and holler, and then run back out saying, “phew! I did it! I got wet! Now where’s my….?” expecting immediate results for our efforts. We feel that we’ve done the work, decided what we wanted, and dove in. So where’s all the answers, the outcomes, the job, the lover? The suffering comes from being accustomed to instant results…email, phone, car, plane…controlling how quickly things happen, planning nearly everything. When we cannot control the timeline of our growth, it is difficult, frustrating, and even painful. Here we’re not just required to believe in something we can’t “see”, but also to release control to “something greater” we don’t know or perhaps even believe exists. Absolute trust.
We have grown very separate from nature. It has a most spectacular rhythm. There is a season of seeds germinating beneath the soil. Perhaps you’ve waited impatiently watching for sprouts, thinking somehow you’d already managed to kill the plant and it hadn’t even made it above ground yet! Ah but then one day, when you least expected it, there it was, the visible signs of life and growth.

Unfortunately your growth knows no timeline. The best way you can move it along is to keep going back yourself, to notice what comes up when you immerse, to be patient with yourself, nature, and “the powers that be” to show results. In an orchard, you can pick fruit as it is mid-cycle and it may taste pretty good. What happens if you wait until you know that it is fully ripened? Are you willing to wait in uncertainty that it may or may not be better than it is now? Are you willing to risk that it won’t get ruined in a storm or by insects? A gamble. It’s worth the wait. Notice how when the fruit is ripe, it comes easily, falling into your hands without having to tug at it.

Love the process
Don’t rush the growth and come out of the lake to soon and deem yourself done. Growth is ever-present, ongoing. You can choose to align with the growth process, tending lovingly to the growth as the fruit slowly ripens, or you can stand and watch it with furrowed brow, looking for signs of change. It won’t grow faster. You can be assured that every moment the fruit is moving closer to its fullest potential, despite that you can’t see it. Know that every moment, if you listen and allow yourself to grow, you are moving closer to your fullest potential. Love growing. Release the outcome. Trust. Ah patience.

close window