now's the time

It is a strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills... we must use time creatively, and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right. [MLKJr] I stumbled across this quote this week while I was reading Dr. King's 'Letter from a Birmingham Jail'. [which, by the way, is an amazing piece of writing] That whole speech really drove me to think about something that I often do. Many times there will be something that I want to say or do but don't feel like it's the right time so I put it off to wait for the 'perfect' moment to come along. While this isn't always the wrong thing to do [sometimes it's not the right time to bring something up], a lot of times I miss the opportunities that may not ever come again. It's all about the mindset we have. When I read that quote from Dr. King, I realized that the wrong mindset to have is the mindset that time itself will heal or repair all the wrongs that we see around us. Sure, sometimes healing takes time, but often, if we would simply have the faith to take the first step, it wouldn't take as long. It's not the time that heals, it's the actions we, other people involved, or God take that does. We're faced with a choice: step out and decide to change, or wait around for a better time to come and miss opportunities that we have staring us in the face. From personal experience, I know that one of the primary things [if not the thing] that can stop me from this is fear. Fear can be paralyzing to doing exactly what you know you should say or what you should do. It's hardest when you know that what you're about to do or say could change the way things are for a long time. [decisions about future, for example] Instead of waiting for perfect opportunities, we should seize the common ones we have and make them great. I love the quote by Stephen Levine, "If you were going to die soon and you had one phone call to make, who would you call, and why are you waiting?" Sooo my point is: we can't think that time will cure everything that we want to be cured, only we can do that by having the faith to take the actions we know we should.