Nearly 150 years ago the New England philosopher, Henry David Thoreau, penned an observation about something very small that, in turn, left a huge impression. It was just a tiny flower on an old country road. But this flower spoke volumes to him and perhaps to us as well.
Thoreau mentioned, "I saw a delicate flower had grown up two feet high, between the horses' path and the wheel track. An inch more to right or left had sealed its fate, or an inch higher; and yet it lived to flourish as much as it had a thousand acres of untrodden space around it, and never knew the danger it incurred. It didn't borrow trouble, nor invite an evil fate by apprehending it."
Like the flower, we cannot always choose the spot or season in which God planted us to bloom. Neither can we necessarily control what heads our way down the road of life.
Sadly, many people never get beyond the spot of their seeding. They simply look around and say, "Is this it?" Then they proceed to slowly wither in despair. They didn't have a choice where they started, but they made a choice as to how to grow from whence they were planted. They chose to be bitter, not better. And that, my friends, is a choice before us all.
A story about such choices recently crossed my desk featuring someone choosing to be better, not bitter. It's a powerful saga with a conclusion still in the making. It's the story of where a person was planted in life and what she has done to make a difference. Yes, a growing and blooming difference like Thoreau's "thousand acres of untrodden space." Yet this story takes place far apart from the woods of New England.
"The love of liberty brought us here"
It's the story of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. You may never have heard of her, but I think you'll come to appreciate getting to know her. She is the newly elected president of the African country of Liberia.
