In the fall when the leaves are turning, a chill is in the air and roadside merchants offer fall apples, squash and pumpkins, I am reminded of the farmer who was walking through his pumpkin patch early in the growing season, and while walking near the road that ran by his farm, he found a one-gallon glass jug that some motorist had tossed into his field. He stood looking at the jug for a few moments, and then for no particularly good reason, he poked a small pumpkin into the jug without damaging the vine.

Later when the pumpkins were full grown and were being picked and stacked, he came across the jug again, this time completely filled with the pumpkin he’d poked inside. The pumpkin had filled the jug completely, and had stopped growing; it was the size and shape of the jug. The farmer took that pumpkin in the jug home and put it on his front porch as a curiosity.

A few days later their son and his wife came to the farm for dinner. They examined the pumpkin in the jug, and after looking at it in silence for a while, the son asked if he could take it to the local college where he taught psychology. “Sure, take it,” his father said. “But what are you going to do with it?”

“I’m going to show it to my class and remind them that that’s what happens to things that get poked into pre-determined spaces. That pumpkin, never got the chance to reach its full growth, whatever that might have been, because it had been poked into pre-determined limit. Someone had decided what the shape and size of that pumpkin was going to be, and it didn’t have any choice in the matter. I want my students to learn a lesson from that pumpkin in a jug. We cannot outgrow the limitations we place on ourselves, or the limits determined by others - if we go along with them - so I want them to understand that if they find themselves, as adults, living in cramped circumstances in their work or any other area of their lives, it was they who did the poking - it’s their responsibility. That pumpkin is a good argument for the importance of education.”

Neither the farmer nor his wife had looked at the pumpkin in the jug in just that way, but they thought it could provide a good example. And it did. After the story got out just about every student in the university came to take a look at it and retell the story the young assistant professor had told. And I suppose most of them realized then that if we wind up in spaces too small - if we don’t grow to our full stature - it’s because we made the decision to stop and not grow any further - it was our decision. It was because we poked ourselves into a predetermined space.

People are responsible for their own lives. If they have the power to limit their growth in someway, they also have the power to break through those limitations and grow again.

It takes courage to chart our own courses and choose the higher plateaus of achievement and reward. Courage is what keeps us moving ahead in spite of despair.

Earl’s little gem of the week: “If you find yourself, as an adult, living in cramped circumstances in your work or any other area of your life, it was you who did the poking – your life is your responsibility.”

***

Rollo May wrote in The Courage To Create: “People attain worth and dignity by the multitude of decisions they make from day to day. These decisions require courage! Courage is essential to our being.”

From Diana’s desk

While in the process of selecting this week’s message, I received a phone call from an old friend, and after the usual greetings and getting caught up on what is happening in our lives, we got around to the “problem with you.”

I always chuckle when someone who claims to know me, asks - “You know the trouble with you?”

It seems that because I have never poked myself into, or allowed anyone else to poke me into one of those limiting spaces Earl talked about, I am perceived as “having a problem” - no doubt - “fitting in” to others perception of acceptability. Thank God I have been so blessed!

As a result of my recent move, my acquaintance, determined that because I have lived in several homes in different states, that there must be “something wrong with me.” Why would I do that?

Instantly, I could hear and see Earl in my mind’s eye, and replied, “because, I am able to do so.”

Earl told me often how, as a small boy, of maybe five or six years of age, one day he was walking along just kicking at the dirt, as small boys have been known to do, when it occurred to him that he was the only thing within his sight that could move. The trees couldn’t move from where they were growing; the stones in the road couldn’t just up and move, and neither could the mountain in the distance. He said the realization that he wasn’t permanently tethered in one place and could move about and go wherever he wanted to go was such a happy thought that he just ran and ran, as fast as he could.

My phone conversation came along at just the right moment - when I was writing about the Pumpkin in a Jug. Any other day and I may have bought into the idea that there is something wrong with me because I refuse to be poked into a jug or any other limiting space, and live my life according to other’s ideas of what’s right for me. On second thought – no way!!!

Until next issue, don’t poke, or let anyone else poke you into a space in which you cannot grow and become all that you may be.

May your journey be blessed.