What is it about the idea of succeeding and manifesting what we have called, longed and worked for, that creates such tension? 

It seems that at the very moment a part of us says "Yes" to a creative impulse, a restraining force of the same intensity says "yes but, what if, maybe...". Many us shy away from this unavoidable and necessary tension, because somewhere, somehow, we have been led to believe that if something is "meant to be", it should be effortless and free from restraints. 

When I visited the desert in Arizona I stood in awe in a desert populated by Saguaros evoking in my mind scenes played out by mythical Gods, their arms raised up the heavens, pointing a direction out into the horizon. They live up to 200 years, in extremely adverse conditions, growing only 1 to 1.5 inches  in the first 8 to 10 years of their life, it may take 45 years for them to grow an arm and they can reach up to be 70 feet tall; gathering rain water around their very shallow roots and storing this precious resource for times of drought and extreme conditions. They seemed to be thriving and blossoming under the scorching sun, creating life and homes for innumerable life forms. 

I hold this memory as a story of success because, through the Saguaro, Life found a way to balance and create a way to reconcile what seemed to initially be a place of contradicting and opposing conditions. An extraordinary plant adjusting and thriving in places of heat and drought.

Can we hold the same commitment for our personal, professional and existential success? Can we allow for the tension to be part of this process, viewing it as the necessary condition for our potential to blossom? Can we welcome surrendering to the restraints, and hold the faith needed to believe that we can further our world and lives, envisioning the reconciliation of these opposing forces, as the potential of coherence held in our collective unfolding? 

I like to think so.