For no particular reason today I’m reminded about a dream I had a few years ago. I was standing on a train platform waiting on a train. I remember that I wasn’t merely a commuter waiting on a train to take me to work…a routine process repeated almost daily. No, this was different. I was waiting on a train to take me somewhere…somewhere I had dreamed of going for some time. The day had arrived, my bags were packed, I was ready to go.
On the platform with me were others who were excited about leaving. They were looking forward to the trip and the anticipation was building as we waited for the train to come. This wasn’t just any train. This was our train. This was my train. It was taking me away to the next chapter in my life.
In the distance we began to hear the distant rumble of the train on the tracks. Suddenly, the silence was broken by the train’s mighty whistle blast coming from the valley in the distance. The roar grew louder until the train finally came into view. As it rounded the bend, it began to slow down in anticipation for stopping at the station to pick us up. Like the others, I stood and gathered my bags and prepared to board.
About this time in the dream, I look up and notice that something is very, very wrong. My train has switched tracks and is not coming to my station platform after all. My train is going to another platform…one on the other side of mine. It stops, picks up its passengers and moves ahead…without me.
I’m stunned. All that anticipation spills out of me and I’m spent in disappointment. I watch the train disappear behind the curve as I realize the inevitable truth—either I’ve missed my train or I’ve been waiting for the wrong train all along. Either way, it’s clear, I’m not going anywhere today.
OK, OK, I’ll admit to some deep-seated issues here. But have you ever felt like that? Your big opportunities are passing you by as you stand helpless on the wrong platform. You peer in the windows of the departing train only to see the passengers laughing and drinking and singing…all thrilled to be on that train…your train. OK. Enough of that.
What’s the lesson here? My tendency is to always think that my destiny is something “out there,” something that will come someday and sweep me away to a better place: a place of fulfillment, of significance, of meaning, of reward. But I’m wrong. My destiny is inside me. It may only be a microscopic seed…but it’s in there. There’s no need to stand and wait for it. It’s already there…just waiting to be nurtured and developed.
It’s sad to think that we all might be standing on a platform waiting for something that we already have. It’s already in our grasp. It’s inside of us. It’s a part of who we are. But it needs to be developed and nurtured. It needs water and rich soil and warm sunshine.
Stop waiting for something you already possess. It’s in you.
mmm… good stuff.
I could not have said it better. Each day we have a new beginning it is what we do with that day that matters. We can take the journey or the journey can take us. In other words we can be the driver or we can be the rider. It is our choice.