Kate here - We were talking yesterday about why it is that we start projects and then drop them or pause them before completion. This morning I found myself writing about this during my morning pages and I wanted to share a couple of thoughts. When I look at my daily life, there were lots of areas where I didn't see things through to completion. Here are a few examples: boxes of journals filled half way, new clothes worn only once, food in the fridge that won't be eaten, clothes on the floor, first semester of organic chemistry rocked! second semester I lost interest (same awesome professor), fear of sticking with a relationship after the honeymoon phase. Here are a few examples of new behaviors I'm noticing that signal to me I am changing: I can't believe I actually finished the extra large container of old fashioned oats!, picking up an old journal and starting in on the blank page - (I can't believe I made it to the last page!), folding my clothes at night, enjoying new shoes despite the fact that I disliked them the morning after, month seven of pumping milk for my daughter while at work (it's gotten easier but there were times when I would do it stomping my feet in frustration tantrums!). When I ask myself why I used to start a journal and then drop it I think the answer is that sticking with something past the period of new excitement meant I needed to face things, I needed to grow in order to finish. And Growth Can Be Painful!! that's for sure. Growth sometimes feels like a constriction point that we pass through, sometimes it is uncomfortable, and means we see people and relationships and our lives in new ways, it rocks the boat, it's a birth. Maybe by asking us to keep paddling, keep driving the oars into the water, this growth allows us to get to new places and see new vistas. Someone once told me, "difficult times are like being out in the cold, they make that hot chocolate by the fire all the more enjoyable". I think growth is like that, we get tired of our old habits or we are faced with a challenge in life, and we weather a storm of growth, after which we find the world around us changed, our senses refreshed and renewed. When it's our own project we are asking ourselves to face this challenge deliberately, self-willingly. It's painful, but I think it's immensely rewarding - it's our journey, we are scouts! adventurers! We are lives that are worth discovering.