Occasionally I give an update on the daily bits of wisdom parceled out to me through my daily horoscope. This past week’s words caught my attention at the breakfast table. It read: ” Are you growing or merely coping? You make so much happen in a day(and so much happens to you, as well) that you can’t help but wonder when the sun is setting how it’s all adding up.” So much for a trivial beginning to a regular Thursday. Instead I was offered big questions to help shape what I thought was going to be just an ordinary day. The horoscope seemed significant so I tore it out and threw it into my purse.

Growing? Or simply coping? Are you ever plagued by this conundrum? Of course, every morning most of us wake up with the pure intention of growing, of blossoming beyond belief for the whole world to see. But the truth of the matter is that all those things we might make happen or that might happen to us often result in mostly coping. It can find us at the setting of the sun wondering what we did do with the precious hours, minutes and seconds that were offered to us. How did we remember to breathe in the goodness that came our way? How did we keep our hearts open to acts of compassion that brushed up against our broken spirits? What were the moments of simplicity that reached out to grab our deepest longings? When did we allow the eyes behind our eyes to take a snapshot that might last a lifetime?

Often the intention with which we begin each day most often gets overshadowed by invisible threads,pieces of lint and bits of paper that make up the pile with which we end the day. Have you ever had the experience of finding yourself unable to remember what actually happened during large sections of a day that is just ending? I find this to be quite unnerving and a sure sign that I may be in a coping rather than a growing mode.

What is growing in your life these days? Summer is so full of growth. It is visible all around us. In gardens and yards, flowers and plants are reaching toward the sun offering both beauty and nutrition. In neighborhoods all around, those who are aware, can observe the children who began June at one height, arrive in August’s final days a few inches taller, some able to ride bikes without training wheels or swim the length of the pool. Those of us blessed to have college aged young adults around are quite aware of the growth that has happened in the months that have passed. Summer makes that growing visible to family and friends and can be filled with both excitement and poignancy.

No matter the season……summer, fall, winter, spring…….the longing for growth is a part of what it means to be human. We each, I believe, long to understand how our days, how our lives are adding up. And so it is always a good thing to ask the question: Did today find me merely coping? Or were there moments, true moments, when something nudged me to ‘moreness’, toward some place of growth? Did I take the training wheels off something today or swim farther than ever before? Did I grow a few inches in understanding, in compassion, in peacefulness, in love? Was I able to reflect on the past nine months and see movement, perhaps, toward a hope for goal?

Over the past few days I have been traveling and I intentionally left Thursday’s horoscope in the pocket of an airplane seat for some unsuspecting traveler. If it was not found and discarded by a tenacious cleaning person, this question of growing or coping may now be rolling around in someone else’s mind. It is a delicious thought. In the heat that has wrapped us all this summer, may we find only tiny moments of coping and instead find a reason to celebrate all that has grown.

Blessed be.