We look at the future and think it is going to be one way and when it arrives it isn’t that way at all.
We couldn’t imagine that it would turn out this way.
“Beyond expectation.”
“Totally outside the box.”
“I never expected these kinds of results.”
Imagine for a moment that you are a tiny bug, almost microscopic. You are traveling up the slender column of a calla lily. You started in the warm soil down where the tuber sends out its tentacles and, on a whim, you picked the closest stem and began your journey. It seemed to take forever. Up! Up! Up you crept, up the smooth and satiny stem. You climbed so high you could look down and see the rubbery leaves with their hills and hollows. Dizzy with delight, you wondered if you should have taken that route instead, but, no, you’re committed. You are on your way to discover the secret of the calla lily.
Slowly the vivid emerald stem gives way to a yellow-green receptacle. You wonder if you are getting closer. You seem to be above the tree line, or should I say, leaf line? Thirty minutes later you note the green is softening and the texture is changing.
You have arrived at the blinding white petal. You are to the snow line. Thankfully, you find yourself in the shade.
Like the earth traveling around the sun, you explore the outside of the petal, but this is not what you came for. This is not your destiny to be on the outside. You came to explore the great inside, to behold the caldera. Suddenly you find yourself at an opening and you decide to check out the ridge. Up! Up! Up you traverse thinking an ice pick and some crampons would be nice. You come out into the sun and wish for goggles and sunscreen. No ski experience could be so tantalizing.
You are climbing the ridge on the outside, when suddenly, almost imperceptively, you reach a turning point. You have found access to the interior of the petal. You wonder how did this happen. I was outside. Now I’m inside. I hardly noticed the shift.
Nonetheless, it is glorious beyond words. You continue up the lip of the petal. Crazy extreme! Looking over the precipice you see across a great gulf of open space to the next blossom. Since you are higher, you look down and catch your first glimpse of the tip of the stigma. It is blinding! It is glorious. You teeter on the edge and then remember where you are. Cautiously, you step back, take a deep breath and carry on.
You notice a small rise in the landscape ahead. You traverse to the right and after several minutes of picking your way through the moguls you find yourself at the summit with the great abyss below. Out of it rises the glorious stamen.
It is simply beyond expectation!
Isn’t that how life is? You trudge onward and then in one moment you notice a shift has changed the atmosphere. It seemed so impossible yesterday, but here you are at your destiny!
Marlee Huber ~ Your Flourishing Life!
Lovely analogy!