...said in my best SNL announcer voice.
As I pruned away in my very humble little flower garden this afternoon I couldn't help but reflect on a conversation Ben and I had earlier this week. Ambition is good and contentment equally so; but where do we draw the line with either? Ambition drives us to do good things and accomplish things that would otherwise go unrealized. Contentment gives a sense of peace and calm. But can you have both? How do we move forward and become successful without ambition? Can too much ambition cause an unbalanced and possibly counterproductive life? How do you find peace without contentment? Can contentment lead to laziness and complacency? At what point do you transition from being ambitious and slip into contentment?
I am still working on the answer, an answer that is very individual to my own circumstances. I certainly do not claim to have the definitive answer to this conundrum. So far this is what I have come up with; without at least some amount of ambition our progress becomes stagnant. Ambition can take many different forms and mean something different for every person, but without something to reach for and strive towards there is arrested development on some level. But that doesn't mean that there can not be contentment in other areas of our lives. Just because we are trying to improve our station in one area of our lives does not mean that we can not be completely content in another. It is possible to find balance. What is a bit trickier is in which area do we assign ambition and which contentment?
So why would gardening bring on this thoughtful reflection? I had to do some brutal pruning in hopes of producing a better product in the end. A refining if you will. Sometimes it is impossible to grow to our full potential without some pruning. But in the end what we become is so much more than if we had not gone through the refining, as painful as it may be.
For now, in my own life, assignments have been made. Assignments that will surely change with time. But for now my ambition and my contentment know where they belong. Ok at least they have a general idea.
3 comments:
Wow. I have been having the same arguement/discussion with myself! I like how you said 'assignments have been made'--I sooo need to do that in my life! It's not going to be easy though! Thanks for the deep thoughts--glad to know I'm not the only one.
This is a wonderful blog, as this week I have contemplated in this area. I have been at peace a few times in my life, and I have been ambitious a lot of my life. I work with some who have no ambition to do anything but survive. This seems sad to me although this is all they have known, they have never known encouragement, only survival. I wish I had answers. I do know although Terrie you have only begun gardening the last couple of years, you have been ambitious all of your life, and I have seen contentment in your home.
I have fond memories of you at an early age, getting into a dress and promptly going and finding the nearest dirt , sitting down to play. At that time I was wasn’t happy about this. I now realize you were a gardener, an ambitions gardener that loves to dress well. I love you and pray you always find peace in all parts of your life.
I love this blog!! Thanks for your thoughts! Let me know when for find an answer to this one.
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