It takes as long as it takes

That was John's sage comment to me about 12 years ago, when I couldn't figure out why he wasn't ranting at me to get back into the work force, to start earning a weekly paycheck again, to start contributing $$ to our coffers.

"Aren't you upset at me for how long it's taken to recover," I'd asked.

"It takes as long as it takes."

It's easy to forget that advice, to want things to work out faster, more effectively, more decisively.  Yet, in every case, John's words still ring true.

People are urged to build new initiatives off of previous success.  Well, it took me almost 40 years to finally get answers I started actively searching for at age twenty-four.  It took as long as it took.  But it would never have culminated in success without committing & recommitting, without just keeping on with my efforts to understand the murky & identify the un-understandable. (Gee, the painful amount of time wasted trying to understand the un-understandable!)

Keep on going.  Understand what I want to achieve.  Recognize what works & do more of that.  Recognize what doesn't work & don't do that.  Know that - against what seemed like extremely long odds & in the face of incredible forces that supported the unhealthy (at least for me) status quo - I've done it before & all I have to do to do it again is BE real, BE alive, BELIEVE PREPARE ACT.