The afternoon flew by, thanks to my friend, Tanja Bruch, who kept me company on a soap opera set while I worked as an extras wrangler. In between takes there is always a flurry of activity, but because each scene takes about an hour, I have little to do in between.

Enter Tanja and all her wisdom.

Along with her amazing photography, she is an actor who is frustrated by the long pauses in between acting jobs. Although she knows it comes with the territory, she, like most of us with dreams and aspirations, prefers that it all happens now without all the waiting and hoping and praying that life seems to offer creatives like us. Or anyone with a dream, for that matter.

“Take it step-by-step,” her boyfriend advised her.

One thing at a time is a lot better than a whole lot of nothing all at once.

As I considered what her boyfriend said, it made me realize it is all about Slow, really. You can’t eat pie, dance and stroll the streets of Paris at the same time (although I come from a family that tries hard to attempt such things ~ all in the name of grabbing life by the scruff of the neck and shaking it for all its worth). I mean you probably could, but you’d get indigestion at best and wouldn’t have much from any of the things you were trying to absorb in the first place.

One step at a time means you look at the Big Picture, evaluate where you are and where you’d like to go. After all, you can’t know where you are headed if you don’t know where you are currently. And if you don’t know where you are headed, you certainly won’t get there either.

Once you have taken inventory of your situation, you can only take a step at a time to reach the next level. Even runners take one step at a time, albeit at an accelerated pace.

Sometimes the next level is within a day’s grasp. Sometimes it takes years. But what else is life for than to experience all the steps in between now and hereafter?

It is better not to know how the journey ends and to concentrate on what’s happening right here, right now. I’m willing to take it step by step. Are you?