Great Opportunity Is Where You Are. Don't Despise Your Own Place And Hour. Every Place Is The Center Of The World ~ John Burroughs
John Burroughs was an American naturalist and essayist. According to his biography, he was considered a literary naturalist, rather than a scientific naturalist, because of his style of recording his own perceptions of what he observed.
He was quite popular during his time because of his authentic viewpoint and his simplicity of writing; this quote by him addresses not only his peers, but reaches across the centuries and speaks to all of us. How often do we find ourselves wondering about living in other times or other places. Perhaps we dislike where we live, because of crime or a perceived lack opportunities or other conditions by which we feel restrained. Or we think our best days are behind us. But really, every experience from the past as well as every condition of our environment contains that which we can use to further our most cherished dreams.
I have heard a wonderful metaphor that compares our outer conditions to the white of a fertilized egg in the shell. The white has the exact amount of precisely needed ingredients for the embryo to become a fully developed chick. And at the precise moment when those ingredients are all used up, the chick is ready to break out of the egg! I love when nature can teach us in these simple yet significant ways.
Wherever you are, you really are exactly in the right place at the right time. Look around you and if there is something you wish were different, look at it as if it were a nutrient meant for you to fully develop into your next stage of your evolution. Embrace it all, trust it and know that your perceptions and your very self are the center of the world.
