Coffee Time Thoughts #2 -- Being A Turtle in Life

Life is about the marathon not the sprint.

I’m generally a pretty private person. I don’t often share what I want to accomplish.

I think most people have their own ideas of what they want to accomplish and can get pretty busy trying to get there. They really don’t need to know what I’m doing.

I do have a friend I will tell my successes and failures to. Everyone needs at least one friend like that. He doesn’t judge about the failures. He doesn’t make a big deal about the successes. That is one of the things I appreciate about him, the evenhandedness.

He does make observations on both states. His most common one for the success side, no matter how small, is “that’s progress”. It’s a reminder that success is not a one or none process. There are many steps to get there.

Sometimes those steps can seem so slow. Slow enough to wonder if I’m ever going to arrive. Slow enough to make me wonder if I will recognize the ‘arrival’. Slow enough to make me wonder why I even want to.

Behold the turtle. He only makes progress when he sticks his neck out. — James Bryant Conant

Life is a marathon, not a sprint.

Turtles are a good image for most of life’s progress. They are slow, plodding and persistent in the marathon of life. They don’t try to do the sprint and give up when they lose.

They have that hard outer shell to protect them from most of what life sends at them. They can retreat inside when they need to protect their soft spots from attackers. Attackers can pop up from the strangest places. The turtle carries the shell everywhere.

It can feel safe, even cozy, inside that protective shell. When attacks are frequent I could see the turtle wanting to stay right there. I’d want to. Courage doesn’t have a bottomless supply.

But, if the turtle stays right there inside the shell, it doesn’t get where it’s going. It will be unable to eat and will starve. Something could come along and flip it over, exposing the soft underbelly.

For its own survival, its progress is to stick out head and legs to get itself moving forward. There is no opportunity inside the shell. There is only possible opportunities in going forward.

There are no guarantees of progress or opportunity going forward. There is a guarantee of neither inside the shell.

My friend lets me use the shell sometimes. Everyone needs a rest. When the rest becomes a bit long, he taps the shell and beckons for me to stick my head out and do something. Even something small.

Everyone needs a friend like that.

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Until Next Time — Just Steem on

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