Tight Spot

I’m in a tight spot. It’s my Wellness Wednesday writing day but there is no time, no time at all to write the column that I wanted to write.

Tuesday, October 12, 2021

I’m in a tight spot. It’s my Wellness Wednesday writing day but there is no time, no time at all to write the column that I wanted to write. I scrolled through my idea folder looking for something I could efficiently work with and came upon this:

“Do what you can, where you are, with what you have.”

Theodore Roosevelt said that in 1911 as he contemplated his run for president in the upcoming 1912 presidential race so maybe he was wondering how he was going to make it all come together, himself. (Not that I’m comparing my to-do list to his.)

Whenever I come across that quote, I always get a picture in my head of a photo I saw once from the Depression era of a shack sitting on dusty, barren ground. It was the picture of deprivation and yet through the doorway on a careworn table was a tin can with a flower in it.

I like to think of that when every summer I turn my ridiculously buckled up driveway into a pretend patio Shangri la. I section off a good 20 feet of driveway and pot up an absurd number of containers to make a secret mini botanical garden. I love it but am always a little embarrassed when my sister visits because she has actual and multiple patios and real gardens, many of them.

I sweep my hand out with a flourish as we tour the driveway, while I quote Teddy. It’s a quote we both love and we so this past summer we launched into a big discussion about the integrity of doing what you can, where you are, with what you have. We talk about it in relation to the spaces we create, the bodily limitations we now and will face, the work there is always to be done, the things we buy and what it means for each of us in the very different lives we live.

That quote never fails to make me feel peaceful, like no matter what, no matter how bad things could go for me, no matter how I might compare to anyone else, there is a way to keep my integrity by doing what I can, where I am with what I have.

Happy Wellness Wednesday, a day for doing what you can with what you have.  

E