Serenity… refocus – seek joy – thrive

… if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up. Anne Lamott

I should have found this quote the other day but it will do just as well for today. Dawn is sometimes a long time breaking.

I had other options for quotes; after all, there are zillions of people who have said quotable things, but what caught my eye about this one was the word “stubborn”.

Stubborn. So often that is a negative. A stubborn child (I was said to be one). A stubborn stain. A stubborn man or woman, who won’t budge from a wrong path. Bad things that won’t go away everywhere are said to be stubborn.

But some things should be, must be stubborn.

Hope. Without that, life would be unendurable for a good portion of the world.

Generosity. I had never thought of a stubborn generosity – of spirit, of time, of money – until I read a future friend’s work that mentioned it. But after that, I’ve seen an abundance of examples of it in many places past and present.

Friendship. Lasting through the good and the bad, pursued despite time and distance, nourished and propped up when it flags, greeted anew after time away – I’d say that many lasting friendships are of the stubborn variety.

Belief. In one’s self or in someone else (or, if you are so inclined, in spiritual matters). For all the pop culture hoopla over believing in yourself, I am not sure all that many do. Even some of the more successful people. They may believe in their abilities, to great monetary or professional success, but in themselves? I’m not so sure, for many. To me that is something much different and separate from just what is conventionally considered success.

And you can hardly do a more stubborn thing than trust. In yourself, surely. That’s a lifelong lesson to be learned, for some. Trusting in someone else is, at times, easier – though still the height of stubbornness.

I think I like this.

Here’s to living a stubborn life today. And all the tomorrows.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 11th, 2010 at 7:10 am and is filed under first draft, in with the woo, the breeze at dawn. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.