Just like every other week, I waited till the eleventh hour to write my blog post today.

I knew this was going to happen. I mean it always happens. No matter how much I prepare beforehand, I have come to realize that waiting till the eleventh hour is where the magic truly lies for me. It’s the spice that savors my blog.

To be honest, I have come to accept that I like to wait. Waiting helps me put my thoughts together. It points my attention to things I wouldn’t have noticed before then.

Today, I came back from work tired and exhausted. Before I left the office, the only thing that filled my mind was what I needed to write as my blog post. I got home, and though tired, I opened my computer because I made a commitment to myself. I already promised that I will write new posts on Wednesdays even if heaven falls.

I looked at my blank laptop screen and out of nowhere, I suddenly found myself asking: why is law filled with so much jargon?

All through law school, I heard my professors say, “You cannot approbate and reprobate” when what they really meant was “You can’t have your cake and eat it.” 

I guess my law school professors mirror what life stands for. It’s sometimes complicated. But not always.

If anything, the idea of not eating and having one’s cake at the same time has always existed. Law or lawyers just polished it up to sound intellectual which I clearly understand, seeing how much time we put into reading and studying for the bar. 

But hold on.

Let’s sit with the idea of eating one’s cake and having it.

Just yesterday, I was talking to my work colleague about how challenges are what we signed up for. Apparently, I had to review some documents, and one had over 1800 pages. I had a tight deadline, but I said to myself “I’ll get it done.”

And I got it done.

It was what I signed up for. I was ready to eat my figurative cake, and that meant chewing and digesting every bit and piece.  

Was it challenging? Absolutely! But what good thing comes easy?

You see, challenges are part of life. It’s what makes life what it is. It’s what makes us human. Heck!  They’re what make life exotic!

Sometimes, we pray. Other times we wish. On certain occasions, we ask the universe to send something our way. Most of us wish for something good.

But what pain do we have to go through to get what we wish?

Are we truly ready to receive the package we prayed for?

And I mean the entire package.

Not one where we have to pick and choose. But one where we are aware. Aware that life has two extremes and between the extreme lies the grey.  

Challenges always come with the messy middle.

Pain comes with challenges.

Tension comes with pain.

The relationship we have with the messy middle, challenges, pain and tension say a lot about who we are as people.

A lot of mess happens between what we want and what we get. But that difficult stretch happens to be where growth takes its root.

The messy middle exists to show us what we need to work on to arrive safely on the other side.

Interestingly, this is how we as humans have structured most things in life.

Think about it. You start work with zero knowledge of what to do. If you are lucky, you have a supervisor who explains and guides you. If you are not, you figure things out yourself. Either way, you still have to do the work to become a pro at what you do.

So how well do we carry what we prayed for, wished for and asked for?

Because at the end of the day, it’s one thing to get what we want and it’s another thing to stay when the pendulum swings to the other side of what we asked for.

Sometimes, what we pray for comes with thorns and when it does, we must eat the whole cake, not just the icing.

Because growth, true growth, requires us to show up when things are sweet and when they sting.