On Tuesday this week I was sitting on the 7th Street metered on 
ramp waiting to merge onto I-10 for my daily hour-commute home when I noticed a beautiful flower in the median. It was brilliant orange with a hint of purple. The flower was moving to and fro from the traffic and a bit of breeze in the air. There it is, a thing of such beauty in a sea of sand and gravel. It brought a smile. I was for a moment transported to the Swiss Alps eating a slice of Granny Smith apple, a bit of Gruyere cheese and a torn piece of fantastic French bread, the wind blowing intensely and seeing unbelievable wildflowers growing in no more than a handful of rocky soil tucked among the ledges. How does that happen? How does a thing of such beauty take root and not just survive but thrive against what seems to be such insurmountable odds? You see this all the time in people who are not just survivors but are so resilient, people who seem like life has been so easy even when it hasn't.
Thinking about this desert flower I want to dedicate this newsletter to all these persons who have defied the odds with their spirit, energy, and enthusiasm to see hope, opportunity, and adventure. This feeling of defying the odds is so wonderfully captured on the You Tube download of the old Apple computer ad which I try to view multiple times a week. The black and white one minute commercial video depicts many historical icons; Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King, Jr., Richard Branson, John Lennon, R. Buckminster Fuller, Thomas Edison, Muhammad Ali, Ted Turner, Maria Callas, Mahatma Gandhi, Amelia Earhart, Alfred Hitchcock, Martha Graham, Jim Henson and Kermit the Frog, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Pablo Picasso.
The Apple ad excites me as it speaks about seeing things differently and I absolutely love it as it reinforces my belief that it is possible to defy the odds. We can become who we want to be without regard to our humble beginnings or lack of opportunity, to set our course in this life, to influence our future with a combination of chance, choice and consistency in becoming more than we thought we could. So, what are these things we can do that allows us to become more amenable to opportunities? How do we turn around the lack of education, lack of resources, lack of health or lack in general to the place of abundance? Abundant gifts, abundant resources, abundant spirit and abundant energy?
It appears to me that these are the essential elements of the "Growing Healthy 2008" campaign initiatives given by Vital Health Strategies. The first step on the path to abundance and Vital Health is one of reflection and assessment, asking the tough questions. Who am I? How did I get here? Who do I want to be and how do I get there? I have no doubt you have asked these questions before and if you are like me you have asked yourself these questions multiple times. Take note of you answers. Do you see mostly negative? The I didn'ts, I should haves, I can'ts or I wish I hads? Sure you do, it is natural to look at those things. Stop.
Begin today with the second step on the path to abundance by acknowledging the other 80% of your life, the things you did. This is the beginning of resilience. Start with the strengths, things that nurture, things that support, things that enhance. It is also time to really assess the things you say you value and see whether you are living your life in accordance with those values. The third step is to become aware that some of our dreams are unachievable and that is okay. For example, I am 5'4" on a good day, back straight and not slouching. I will never be a 5'8" ballerina, no matter how much I may wish I were. The fourth step is to differentiate dreams and fantasies. What's the difference you ask? Fantasies live in the world of wishes without action. I wish I were a musician. However, I had only one 4-week introductory course in acoustic guitar at the local community college. That is a fantasy.
A dream is an actionable endeavor. Dreams can be fulfilled with planning, commitment and action. Please do not be mistaken, fantasies can become dreams. I could theoretically become a musician, but this requires me to take lessons in skill and theory as well as practice daily. Just building the calluses on my fingers takes time and guess what? Go for a few weeks without practicing and I will have to recreate those calluses in order to play without pain.
In order to be respectful of your time I will severely curtail the last phase into a simple final step, bloom where you are planted.That is just a way of saying use your strengths, your ingenuity, your creativity and resilience to produce the most beautiful bloom of which you are capable. That dash of orange and purple among the gray and brown; the delicate cream and pink among the craggy ledges, the bloom of clover in the sidewalks. Like the Apple commercial download which ends with an image of a young girl, Shaan Sahota opening her closed eyes, as if to see the possibilities before her. I leave you with the thought that in order to bloom you must accept who you are and make the most of what you have.
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