Persistence pays

What does one do with a tree full of crabapples? In Canada, we make jelly, among other things ... but what happens when you've never made the sticky stuff before? Answer: look for a recipe and then cross your fingers.

Well, the recipe was found with little effort, and the preparation of the fruit also followed. All was going quite well (thanks very much for asking) until the sugar was added and the newly-formed jelly was jarred ... but the jelly remained liquid and never set.

That's the challenge with pre-written and untested recipes: they seem to have built-in glitches every now and then, just to keep us guessing. Isn't life like that sometimes though? Advise about how to solve a given dillema might be freely offered, but the proof as to whether the suggested action will be effective is never known for sure until it's tested. If it works, all's well; if not, there's a choice to be made: start over, or make adjustments with the given material, or abandon the project.

Choice number three is seldom a viable one, especially for people who love a challenge, and choice number one is not always possible either, depending on the particular test that's put before us. Often, we must work with choice number two, which isn't always a bad thing. Re-working the work in progress gives us an opportunity to mold the unfinished project, massaging it gently at times, and beating it at others, until the desired outcome (or some reasonable facsimile) is achieved.

Whether it's jelly, or some other more complex life project, the lesson to be learned is that persistence pays off, and that the lessons worth learning in life often require ingenuity, flexibility and an open mind. Celebrate the successes, and pick up the pieces of the challenges that might seem at first glance to be insurmountable. The results might surprise even the best of us.

Oh, yes, the jelly eventually did obey.