On Beginning Where We Are

Often when we wish we might be something other than what we are, we don’t seem to know where to begin or how. We fix our eyes upon far goals and sometimes assume that they may be approached only by roads that lie beyond our reach. We look at the distance between where we are and where we want to go, and become discouraged. And often we may wish that we were suddenly somewhere else that we could eliminate time and space, and work and waiting. But this we cannot do. He who wants to go somewhere must begin where he is, simply because there isn’t anywhere else to begin. The long look ahead may seem much too long, especially if we’re waiting for the world to find us in some obscure place, especially if we’re young and eagerly waiting for life to take us by the hand. But whether ours is the breathless expectancy of youth, or the cautious outlook of more mature years, or the patient hope of age, for all of us, wherever we now are is the starting point for everything and for everywhere for all that is to follow. Life moves out from here, wherever here is. And the only thing that any of us can do is to begin where we are, with what we have, and move out from there to where we want to go. And even if we fall somewhere short of our dreams, there will be compensations all along the way for trying and much more satisfaction than we could ever have had for not trying. Life is an eternal process; we have to keep working at it. We do not suddenly become what we are. The record of all the endless past is required to explain what we now are. But everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was. The only formula for getting there is the formula of finding direction and then moving in that direction. And even heaven will come as naturally as tomorrow morning, if we do our job here and now, mindful of all the obligations of life. So, wherever you are, whoever you are, whatever you want, however great the distance between you and where you’d like to be: don’t let life discourage you. Begin where you are with what you have. No man can or ever could do more.