There are days when I feel as though I'm not enough. Even more, I haven't done enough. Haven't been published in enough magazines. Haven't been featured on enough blogs. Haven't shot enough weddings. Haven't attended enough workshops. Haven't saved enough money. Haven't read enough books. Haven't cooked enough {good} food. Haven't lived a successful life. The list of things I haven't done is endless. And yet by grace, and in a moment of pure clarity, I remember that I'm only twenty-three.
I like to see results. I like to invest on Monday and see a return on Tuesday {not Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday}. I like to run a mile on Saturday and have my jeans fit looser on Sunday {or better yet, Saturday night}. And I like bamboo because it can grow two feet in a single day. So often I feel such a strong sense of urgency to accomplish everything by yesterday, but today I'm reminded that all I really need to accomplish is the day that lay before me.
And I'm reminded of Lorenzo Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise. At twenty-three Ghiberti won a sculpture competition in order to create the Florence Baptistery's doors. Fifty-one years later, at the age of seventy-four, Lorenzo completed his commission and marked the beginning of the Renaissance. Michelangelo would later declare the Baptistery's doors as "so beautiful they would grace the entrance to Paradise."
If you're like me and you've had times of feeling like a complete failure, I recommend the following speeches by remarkable people. They'll make you get up and do something.
William Kamkwamba: How I harnessed the wind