Ambition can be crushing at times.
Like Sisyphus pushing the boulder up hill, we can feel like ever time we make some headway, the boulder shifts past us and rolls back down into the sand. Or we make it to the top of this hill only to find an even larger one on the horizon.
Or some days it just feels like the boulder rolls back over us on its way down.
We can look at the effortless celebrity that exists in a dreamworld of privilege and opportunity and wonder... why not us?
Life is not fair.
Ambition does not equal success.
Sometimes luck is not on our side.
Then what?
What is the point of it all?
What is the point of all this toil and effort if it will amount to nothing in the end?
What is the point... of a flower?
It will one day wilt. It is so fragile to the ravages of time, mankind and the weather.
Yet in the time it is allotted, it is vibrant and beautiful.
Each sunrise will end in night. Each night will end in another tomorrow with its own toil awaiting.
But still we have that night. Still we have that day. Still we have that rose, by any name.
We have these beautiful moments where our aching hearts can smile and our efforts can shine, if only for ourselves and maybe a few close friends.
Still we have our efforts. We have our art. We have our work. We have our love, and joy and passion.
Yes, it comes with it the wilting, grinding heart ache and suffering of failure, of projects incomplete, of work ignored by the masses.
But in our training, we become wiser. We become stronger. We become more full of the things that we adore and that makes us who we are.
We may never bring home the gold medal, but perhaps we'll be faster and stronger than we were yesterday.
And this series of steps forward is our journey. And that journey holds meaning. To us, and to who we share it with.
Perhaps we may not shatter the world, but perhaps we might mentor the next struggling person who is aspiring to be more than they are right now.
And perhaps you can help that flower grow to be bright and colorful and brilliant. Perhaps you can be in the meanwhile too.
