When the time is right

It's not time yet.

It is often not the words you want to hear.

Sometimes we want to push ahead or speed things up. But something stops us. We cannot quite move forward and the only solid explanation for our stagnation is that it is just not time yet.

Sometimes I think about things for years before I do it. I carry an idea around with me in the back of my mind. I don't really coddle it. It just sits there. Every once in a while I open the drawer and find it there. I take it out and look it over but I put it back in the drawer the way my mother did with things that are either too good to use or things you are not sure what to do with.

And they just sit there in the back of the drawer waiting like a couple of cakes of Yardley soap.

Today I was talking over an idea with a studio visitor and they said, "It's just not time yet." And as soon as they said it I knew. I was just not ready because the time has not come yet.

Sometimes you have to carry ideas around a long time. So many you will never get to. Some will never get out of the drawer. And it won't matter. Because when you are ready, you're ready. When you are ready you know what to do. The next step is clear and things fall into place.

When the time is right the signs are all around you? When the time is right your path is clear? Well, usually.  Maybe?

I have to say I have muddled through some overgrown paths and came out the other side just fine. Sometimes the signs are not all around us and it is still okay to forge ahead. 

You just have to decide if the time is right for you. And it won't always be when you want it to be, and it won't always be clear. This is the story of decision making. 

So now I am putting an idea back in the drawer. Maybe for a few months. Maybe for a year. Maybe for good. I am ok with not knowing exactly. At least I am ok with it right here, right now as I tell you this. When that changes, well that will be a new time. A time to rethink, reevaluate and reconsider.

And that will be ok too.