Motivational Mondays: A Summer Loveseat for One (Although I Really Didn't Want to Be Alone)

I've come to realize something through the winter and the spring ... a great disappointment and walking through and past it while the world goes absolutely nuts.

I understand people are flaming out sometimes because the stress is getting to be too much ... frankly, I have been severely tested myself this year, and I do get it.

But, to 44 and 5/12 years of my life, no matter what was going on, I've always tried to operate with the knowledge that there is "Plenty Good Room" -- enjoy the great Marian Anderson explaining what this means!

I don't see the successes I have in life as something I have to have to myself; I'm not in competition with anyone, and I would prefer that everyone around me enjoy the successes I have. Sometimes I have been successful. I like to think of myself as a much gentler but still intent version of basketball great Michael Jordan with the classes I teach with children and younger people; I lead by example, I insist on excellence, and I let my students know I know they can do it and so I am accepting no excuses from them about not. We practice hard so what we have to do is easy in public -- generally in those environments I have been successful.

Nonetheless, among my peers, I find myself having come to a summer loveseat alone ... the completion of a three-year process has left a lot of folks high and dry despite my best efforts.

It took the day I discovered my summer loveseat to understand and accept that some things are only for those willing to do the climb to them ... and that wasn't obvious to me because "Climbing High Mountains" sits in both Negro Spirituals and the blues...

... so since my elders love the traditional music of our people all the way back, I thought EVERYBODY was trying to get to the top of whatever it was they were called to do.

No. Hard, hard lesson learned.

But, the lesson has a bright lining: there is justice in the universe...

...and it shines out in this way: some things are only for those who take the long, difficult, consistent climb to get to them ... they are a reward for the faithfulness and patience that it takes to get there. If only you are willing to take the climb, then only you will sit at the top of the mountain, provided the mountain is high enough that cheating the climb is not an option because acclimatization -- getting used to the conditions -- is not optional.

As my father preached yesterday, there are situations that are prepared places for prepared people -- everybody can't go, no matter how much we might want to take all those that we love. At last I have reached the other side of the lesson: if I just keep going, keep climbing, keep preparing, all the things that are a reward for that will be mine ... and if you just keep going, keep climbing, and keep preparing, you will find that the same thing is true for you!