Sometimes the shortest conversations yield the most abundant harvests. I had two such conversations yesterday and it is my pleasure to give a snippet of each, along with my resultant realizations, in hopes that your lives are enriched in the sharing.
The first conversation was with a woman who was filled with an infectious spirit of appreciation for her present opportunities. She felt blessed to be where she is, with the people she has the good fortune to work with and she longs for an expanded capacity to be a blessing. This delightful woman doesn’t yet realize how gifted she is in her work, but she is starting to see ways that she can overcome the tendency to stand in her own way. We discussed the fact that this phase of her development would come most quickly by letting, rather than by trying.
Realization #1: Some circumstances provide more space than others for the expression of such a spirit, but truly great people find the apertures no matter how constrictive the situations they face might be. Excellence grows best in the soil of appreciation.
Realization #2: Trying is rarely preferable to letting. There is a wellspring of genius inherent in each and every person on earth. Most people mistakenly focus their energies on trying to make their individuality and subsequent value appear, rather than relaxing in ways that lets it emerge naturally and in season.
The second was with a friend who longs to provide leadership not just in most, but in every phase of his living. We discussed ways he could expand his service in those areas in which he felt limited, with the shared observation that he dare not put off until tomorrow the responsibility that he himself recognized needed to be assumed today.
Realization #3: Delay petrifies the fluidity of the present moment and putrifies the fruit that is ripe for the picking in your present circumstances. Do the right thing at the right time because it is the right thing to do.
Realization #: The “perfect” moment is more often constructed than discovered. The construction occurs as the little, seemingly insignificant, easy-to-put-off opportunities to trim the sail are handled in a timely and thorough manner.
Gregory Hake 
Great post, thanks!
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Appreciation is the transforming spirit. It’s like having a magic wand! No mater how dark or dire the situation, appreciation will create an opening for life to flow in. The situation may not outwardly change to others but the soothing balm of peace and love will bring comfort and help that can’t be forced or constructed. It opens the conduit with the higher so blessing can flow freely. Thanks for ray of light this morning!
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I’ve found when I have something to do that has a certain window, say a month. If I do it as early in the process then unexpected glitches or the opposite, expansive opportunities, have a chance to be worked out or taken advantage of. Love the “trim the sail” expression, it fits!
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I really think it is important to approach these realizations in the order that you put them in. You can’t have consistently perfect opportunities without appreciating, because in a certain way the perfect moment is relative to the person experiencing it. Some people are never happy no matter what the moment, and some people can find the silver lining in any happy day, and not only see it, but leverage it into further opportunity. But unfortunately, you can appreciate all the moments that are there to be appreciated, and really want to be a leader, but if you are putting off everything for later you are really missing the point. Like in your example, you will miss the little trimmings of the sail until you have to make a big correction to the course, which is very inefficient.
There really is a seamless, natural flow to this process, but you have to allow it to happen. You can’t let fear of failure or fear of success put you off from taking each step when its time is come. It is really the essence of sprezzatura that you bring up occasionally. If you get off the rhythm, you have to force what should have been easy and natural.
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Using those analogies, it really is kinda sad if you let a fruit that is ripe for the picking just fall and go to waste, left alone to wither away. It may take 1 year, a billion years, or never, whatever, to produce a similar moment – you never know. You think about how much went into producing that fruit, all the happenings that conspired to produce that moment of opportunity to do something helpful, for that is a potential blessing to all round about if handled correctly.
And just like in your picture, the fruit may be surrounded by thorns and thistles as is the case for the blackberry, you may need to tread carefully, but nevertheless (and certainly you need fear not) the fruit is indeed for the picking and we as sentient beoings have the ability, no – the responsibility, of furthering/magnifying the evolution of blessing in the world. Fruits are the evolved configurations of circumstance. I think it’s a really good analogy to use as a lens to view your world. Symbolism helps to bring perspective and functional realism to what’s going on in life for there is always much more going on than what merely meets the eye.
Thanks for letting us, your readers, be a fly on the wall in your conversations!
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What a world it would be if everyones interactions with each other were as fruitful and productive as what you have shared with your readers. It is an example of the wonderful openings present each day and with every interaction to bring ourselves and others to a new level of living. Our expressions in each moment can either inspire. Or destroy the highest expression on each of us.
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