Ten point Five Years

 On January 30TH, 1958, The United States at no observable and successfully demonstrated presence in what was then known as OUTER SPACE. The very next day. January 31ST- The United States , after months of trying, The United States put a satellite, Explorer One, in orbit around our Earth. 15 days less than TEN and a Half YEARS later, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot upon the surface of the Moon.

 From nothing to a triumphant Moon Landing in 15 Days less than 10 and a Half Years, WOW!!!!! In the 1970's the phrase, " If we can put Astronauts on the Moon ,Then we can do..." The idea of this statement is " We should be able to accomplish ANYTHING- NOTHING, indeed should be impossible for us to achieve." In a way, This philosophy became an American Tower of Babel.

It is an amazing accomplishment, I went from ages 4 to 14 years of age during that same Ten point 5 years and the efforts to get to The Moon as well as all that Our astronauts and scientists, engineers and technicians needed to do to make that First Landing possible seemed m to me to be nearly miraculous and extremely awe-inspiring! Yet, Great, intense and impressive and even spectacular efforts do not guarantee that we will always obtain success. Sometimes an amazing effort can bring about only a very small amount of progress and success. It may take a good amount of effort to move a car, with the break NOT engaged on a dry surface on a sunny day. If that same stalled car is trapped in the mud, the same hard and focused effort that moved the first car may prove rather insufficient if applied to this second vehicle.

Thusly, We need to be patient with ourselves and know that improvement, progress and finally achieving success in certain matters and circumstance may require for more effort than we think it may take. We also may need to apply that effort for a lot longer than we first imagined we would. Yet, If we are in it to achieve success we may need to say, " None of this is to my liking, none of this is as I wish it would be but, Oh Well, I guess I will just need to resign myself to applying MUCH more effort for much longer!"

There is an old saying that I came across years ago in AA that addresses this point very bluntly and directly, "It takes what it takes." We often have to make far more of an effort then we plan to originally try to achieve what we are DETERMINED to achieve.I think most of us also learn, that the more demanding, exhausting and draining our efforts are, the more we have a reason to celebrate the ultimate success that we FINALLY acquire!

- Johnny -