Quote of the Day for May 10, 2011 - Never Too Late...

Mary Anne Evans - aka George Eliot

I was watching last Sunday's episode of Brothers and Sisters - if you're a fan, it's the episode where Sarah and Luc finally get married - typical family angst precedes but it all ends on a happy note.  As the episode came to a close, Nora (Sally Field) quotes George Eliot:   

"It is never too late to become what you might have been."

This quote is all that more poignant when you realize that George Eliot, author of some of the most endurung works of Victorian fiction such as Adam Bede and Silas Marner, was actually a woman named Mary Anne Evans who wrote under a masculine pen name to gain credibility as a writer.  Mary Anne thought herself old when, at the age of 40, her first novel, Adam Bede,  was published.

For many of us whose birthdays are approaching the midway point of our lives, it is easy to look upon what our youthful selves intended us to be and compare it to how we turned out.  Some of look back with a feeling of deep satisfaction but others look back with regret over lost opportunities, decisions that appear rash in hindsight, or just merely life happening all around us, dulling those flights of youthful fancy.

If you think back to who you thought you would be at this point in your life which reaction to you experience - satisfaction or regret - maybe a little of both?

Would your 17-year old self be proud of what you have accomplished or be shaking her head and disavowing any knowledge of you?  I think my 17 year-old self would be both sad and impressed.  Sometimes life throws us a pretty wicked curve ball and we just have to do the best we can at the time to handle the situation.

I love the quote because I think it is profoundly true.  Last June I was filming a TV program for a local cable company and while waiting in the "green" room I met a man whose courage to be the person he thought he would become never waivered.  Struck with ALS and confined to a wheel chair, he had always thought he was meant to leave a legacy and he had always wanted to skydive.  Despite his debilitating disease he took on the challenge of skydiving and then turned it into an annual fundraiser for ALS - meeting his dream of leaving a lasting legacy. 

Stories like that give us hope and inspiration, but the courage and the drive have to come from yourself - only you know what you might have been and whether or not you will take the risk to become that person.  My grandmother is 92 and still reaching  for her dream - she has always wanted to be a missionary and it was her dream to serve in an overseas mission.  Life (WWII, marriage, 5 babies) intervened, but she has never waivered in her pursuit of this dream and has been a missionary wherever she has gathered folks together with her.  One of her mission projects didn't start until she was 72 and had a profound impact on every woman who participated.

Is it too late for me to become the person I might have been - absolutely not!  What about you??