March’s post for the fine folks at Nourishing Storm.  I usually post these way after the fact but in honor of the anniversary of the Hinkie Manifesto, the inspiration behind this post, here it is early 🙂

Development isn’t something that just happens.  It is a process. It’s not a one and done deal. It requires vision, trust and time.

These days we want everything now. Technology has offered us so much so fast.  And our culture pressures us to move as fast as technology can take us. We may be tempted to trade the opportunity of manifesting our entire vision for one piece we can touch right now.  If we truly believe in our vision, we are willing caretakers of its evolution for however long it takes.

Time is key to the quality of all we seek to develop; whether it be a photograph, a story, an NBA basketball team, a life.  This post took time to develop as I let the theme marinate and its meaning to me evolve. Had I wrote what first came to mind, I would have written a few pages about old school film development.  But sitting with it, the pages boiled down to one sentence.  We had to wait for the full richness and complexity of the light captured on this photographic paper to reveal itself, all the while not knowing if we got the shot we desired.  Trust and time.

We never can be fully certain of the outcome of any of our efforts.  But we can be sure of the integrity of our efforts. If we can shift our focus from the outcome to the process, we begin to see more ways there come to light.  Ways that would have never been seen had we not held the view long enough to see them.

“We’ve been on a path to build something special. We’re planting seeds to have an orchard. Some would have us go out and buy apples. But we want to build the whole orchard.” ~ Sam Hinkie

I am somewhere in the middle of my life story and I’m still painting my masterpiece.  I’m still building my orchard.   By the world’s clock, I’m behind schedule. But what vital wisdom, insight and experiences might I have missed had I tried to force myself to become me on the world’s time instead of my own?

Trusting the process and taking the long way home gave way to the collateral cultivation of a sustainable source of patience, grit, and tenderness in my soul.  All things that have enriched my life in ways I never really stopped to consider until now. I still don’t know for sure how things will unfold for me or for anyone else.  But I do know the end will be revealed in its own time. And that we are worth the wait.