Welcome the Heat

The meeting ends.

I close my laptop. Chairs scrape back, the door swings open, and the room clears around me.

The plan I worked on all week has failed.

My mind starts to reach for an explanation ~ an excuse, really ~ before I even stand up.

Maybe the timing was wrong? Maybe I needed one more day. Maybe I…

The dark laptop screen catches my reflection.

My jaw is tight.

My eyes are searching.

I rest both hands on the table and say ~

“I turn off the impression.”

My face relaxes. The tension releases from my body.

I open my notebook and write one honest sentence: “the plan failed.”

Under it, I write ~

“I turn failure into opportunity.”

I toss the laptop in my bag, tuck the notebook under my arm, and walk toward the glass door.

Bright afternoon light floods the threshold. Heat rolls across the pavement outside.

A car waits across the lot. I step out and the sun meets me, heats me.

I say ~

I turn bad into good. I turn failure into opportunity.

The heat melts my shoulders. I open my eyes and glance at the sun. I loosen my collar and walk to the low wall beside the building.

I sit down and open the notebook across my knees.

The bad result is on the page, and so is my response.

I write ~

“I turn bad into good. I turn failure into opportunity.”

One failed afternoon is my current circumstance. My vision reaches farther, looks better, and seems more real to me than what just happened.

Faith takes a step into the unknown.

Faith makes the call, and accepts the results.

Faith knows that every stumble, every misstep, every could’ve been ~ is really a lesson that I need to learn.

I welcome the heat because I am what remains after the fire.

“I welcome the heat because I am what remains after the fire.”

“I turn bad into good. I turn failure into opportunity.”

“I have more faith in my vision than in my current circumstances.”

“I turn off the impression.”

I let go and rise up.