Opportunities are fleeting

Every morning this week I stood at the bathroom window looking at these beautiful white spider lilies that had blossomed as a cluster under the red canopy of the Poinciana tree in my yard. Beautiful and delicate white flowers having a personality of their own. Looking like something out of a Dr. Seuss story with their human like qualities. Their spider like tendrils. Almost like they could walk over to me and have a conversation with me. Every morning I marveled at their magnificence and told myself I had to take a photo of them so I could write about them and show them off because they were both elegant and mysterious at the same time.

And every evening when I came home, they would catch my eye again. Forcing me to look at them and every evening I would have the same thought I had in the morning - that I would photograph them so everyone who reads my blog could see their beauty and mystery at the same time. To see their human like qualities. And then I would walk by them as I did in the morning saying I will take the photo tomorrow. Tomorrow would come and I would tell myself I was too busy that day and I would take the photo tomorrow.

But last evening when I came home, I got such a shock because my beautiful spider lilies were losing their magnificence. Their beauty was waning – almost to the point of extinction. Like they had died before my eyes before I had taken the time to capture them on camera. Before I could make them an everlasting vision for me on camera. I was devastated when I realized because I had procrastinated and taken their existence and beauty for granted, I had missed the opportunity to capture them in full bloom. I had forgotten that yesterday had become the day before's tomorrow. And today yesterday's tomorrow. That in reality, tomorrow never comes  - all we have is today – this moment – no more – no less. 

As I walked slowly up the steps of the welcoming arms to my home, past the palms, I realized with great certainty why those spider white lilies had captured my vision for the week. It was not for me to capture their image and immortalize them, it was to awaken me to the fact that opportunities are fleeting.  Opportunities come around for a finite amount of time. They wag themselves in front of our faces for as long as they can until they become tired and need to move on to those who will take advantage of their existence. They move away from us because they become frustrated with us for thinking we have all the time in the world to take advantage of them. Forgetting that we are finite beings making our opportunities that much more finite.

I stood at the top of the stairs, at the apex of the welcoming arms to my home  for the longest time digesting the lesson from those Dr. Seuss character like white spider lilies and thanked them for reminding me that opportunities come and go. They don’t stay. They don’t linger. They move on when we think we are not good enough or ready for them. They move on to those who take life by the hand and allow it to lead them where they need to go without worry. Without regret. With fear and with faith that opportunities manifest for those who recognize them for what they are.

My beautiful white spider lilies were not sent for me to photograph in their glory. No. they were sent to remind me to not procrastinate. To know I am good enough for any opportunities that comes my way. To take them without question and allow them to take me where I need to go. Sometimes they will result in triumph. Other times misfortune. But with every opportunity seized I am that much closer to finding out who I am and what I came here to be. Rather than standing on the sidelines and watching someone else snatching the opportunity I had dreamed off but was too afraid to take and become the person I always knew I was capable of becoming but was too afraid to become.

I took a deep breath then moved beyond the apex of my welcoming arms, stepping forward into my home. Grateful for  the lesson from the beauty of the spider lilies waning before my eyes knowing opportunities are meant to be seized not to be neglected or put off to the tomorrow that never comes.  Namaste.