Take One Step at a Time

That's all Life asks of you

Bambi, Linda and I walk along the new steppingstones pathway at Evergreen.

Last summer, we bought some steppingstones and laid them out in a curving pathway from the main garden to a little wooden bridge with a yellow arch over it.

It’s fun to walk along them, one steppingstone at a time, knowing that we’ll soon arrive exactly where we want to go.

Have you ever wished that Life stretched out in front of you in a series of clear steps for you to take?

Study for this degree . . . then you’ll get this fantastic job . . . then you’ll meet this perfect partner . . . then you'll buy a lottery ticket . . . then you'll collect your winnings . . . then . . .

But Life doesn’t work that way.

Life presents you with choices and you can only take one choice – one step – at a time. You don’t know what the next step will be until you take this one right in front of you.

Creating a Book Inspired by Evergreen, One Step at a Time

I’m in the process of writing a little gift book about Evergreen, subtitled 21 Messages from a Wild Garden. It will be illustrated with miniature watercolour paintings by my daughter Merribeth and will be published through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).

There are lots of steps involved in this process, like write the book (one word at a time) and create the illustrations (one at a time). We can read about the publishing method, get the facts, find out what can go wrong, create a list of things to do, find ways to promote it, and so on.

But we can only ever take one step at a time towards finishing all the steps necessary to make a book. We can’t hit that magic button labelled “PUBLISH” until we’ve completed all the steps, one after the other. Impatience will get us nowhere. We can’t leap ahead. We can only do our best, one step at a time.

Sometimes the next step is half hidden in the seemingly messy grass of LIfe.

Take One Step at a Time

The only step we can take is the next one.

Sometimes we panic because we’re not sure what to do with what Life has presented us with.

But if we pause, take a deep breath, and look carefully, we will see – perhaps half hidden in the seemingly messy grass of Life – the next step we can take.

Life doesn’t lay down an already-worked-out pathway for us to walk on. That would be boring, actually.

Instead, Life reveals one step at a time, exactly when we need it, exactly where it needs to be.

And the secret to a happy life is to be present with every step we take.

As Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote:

Find the journey’s end in every step.

I'll let you know when the gift book is published and available!

With love, Marlane