Accepting Our Limitations

Teachers and parents encourage young people to "reach for the stars"  in their careers - and so they should. But few mention the other aspect of finding satisfying work - accepting our limitations.

Parker Palmer addresses this subject in his book, Let Your Life Speak, subtitled, Listening for the Voice of Vacation.

If we are to live our lives fully and well, we must learn to embrace the opposites, to live in a creative tension between our limits and our potentials. We must honor our limitations in ways that do not distort our nature, and we must trust and use our gifts in ways that fulfill the potentials God gave us. We must take the no of the way that closes and find the guidance it has to offer - and take the yes of the way that opens and respond with the yes of our lives.

As I read his words, I regret that I hadn't realized this "simple, healthy, and life-giving truth about vocation" when I was teaching and talking to students about future plans. I experienced my own limitations - even in high school - where I chose to take language courses instead of history, math or science. But I didn't see them as limitations, but rather, as failings.

Later, as a teacher, I recognized that my best teaching self came out, not when I was teaching young children, adolescents or teens, but when I taught English to adult immigrants.

Accepting our limitations is key in many aspects of life. Even in relationships. Years ago, someone observed that I was a "big picture" person, while Terry focuses on details. Yes, that's why we don't always see eye to eye!

Even in hobbies, like quilting... Recognizing what my limitations are may take time, but eventually I have come to realize that I hate fiddly details like matching corners or points... So those are things I should avoid in quilting...

I may love a quilt that looks like this one on the left... But it has too many corners to match. I'd end up frustrated.

I'd be better off with squares that don't have to be precise, like this!

Or this...

Strange to think that it's taken me so long to realize that my weaknesses - things I can't do well - aren't  failings - but simply limitations! (And that it's possible to work around them!)