Once We Are Grown

How big is your container? You do have one, you know. Did you know that the size of your life is roughly the shape of your “container”? It is your idea of what you think you deserve.

Years ago, a farmer brought an amazing pumpkin to a county fair. It was big and orange, in every aspect a perfect pumpkin. But it was the exact size and shape of a two-gallon jug. After it had won a blue ribbon, someone asked the farmer how in the world he had managed to produce such a wonder. He chuckled a bit and said, “Shucks! Wasn’t anything to it! Soon as the blossom started to grow, I just stuck it inside a cider jar and the pumpkin took care of the rest.” (In countries where shelf space in grocery stores is precious commodity, square watermelons started appearing the next year.)

Just like that pumpkin, the shape of your life is determined by the size and shape of the container in which you hold it. That container is made up of your beliefs about what is possible, your expectations of what will happen, and – most of all – your thoughts about yourself and the world you live in.

Many of your beliefs about what is possible for you were put there by someone else when you were just starting to blossom. What would your life look like if you were able to let yourself grow without the limits of other people’s ideas about you? Children are often forced to shrink to fit the size of their parents’ containers by adults who don’t know any better. The good news is that, unlike our two-gallon pumpkin or square watermelons, once we are “grown” we still have the choice – and the chance – to grow some more and be different.

Take a look at your beliefs – where they came from and how they limit you. Then, make some choices for yourself based on how big you want your mind and spirit to grow. We all have a lot to offer this world, and it would be a waste of precious talents to hold ourselves to the size of a two-gallon jug.