Someone today said that there are no missed opportunities — they’re simply passed on to other people.

How true this is.

The person said this was a Greek thing to say, but in reality, perhaps they’re just the ones who are most realistic in this case. So often we tell ourselves it wasn’t meant to be, it wasn’t the right time or anything similar. We spent a while licking our wounds and soothing ourselves when, in reality, we didn’t spent enough time preparing.

We didn’t spend enough time charting our course.

We didn’t spend enough time tracking down the very thing that would make the heart sing.

Then, before we know it, we’re hearing of someone else who caught a break, who is going places, or who is living the dream that we — once upon a time — called our own.

This isn’t to say that all the planning in the world will bring a dream to fruition, but it is to say that if a dream doesn’t happen for us, if will surely happen — in some iteration or another — to someone else.

So tonight I am thankful for the reminder that preparing is a good thing, that honing one’s craft takes time and that all things happen when they should for us — so long as we prepare. For even if we prepare, we may only get a simple lesson out of it all…but that’s more than we had going in, and such a lesson may be the most valuable thing for us to keep in mind as we’re pursuing another dream.