This poem came from seeing a quote my friend Liz Belz-Templeman posted from Richard Powers Pulitzer winning novel The Overstory: “When is the best time to plant a tree?Twenty years ago. When is the next best time? Now.” It struck me this isn’t just true of planting trees but really anything important in our lives that take time.
And it’s important to consciously remind ourselves to get started- even when we don’t feel like it. We have a cognitive bias, a built in mental blind spot, that focuses on what we haven’t done and knocks us off our path or keeps us from even getting started in the first place. I did my doctoral work with Dan Ariely, and he describes the bias as the “What the hell effect.” Basically, if you have been engaged in a healthy practice and then have some kind of slip, you will tend to focus on the fall and give up on yourself for a period of time, ignoring the importance of the small gains you’ve made along the way. For instance if I’ve been trying to eat a more healthy diet and wind falling pray to the siren’s song of an apple fritter my colleague cruelly and unusually brought into the office clearly trying to sabotage me- I will probably tell myself “What the hell?” and consider the whole day and maybe even the week a loss.
In a similar way when is the best time to start any good, life affirming practice? Twenty years ago is not a bad suggestion for those of us of…ahem…a certain age. But can we go back in time and be the people we wish we had been? Nope. Is it really easy to see that fact and say, “Fuck it? What’s the point of trying now- I should have started a looooong time ago?” Absolutely. And so we must gently whisper to ourselves, “Yes, but when is the next best time? Today.” We can’t change what was. We can move forward today and begin to be the people we’ve always know we’ve been made to be.
The Next Best Time
“’When is the best time to plant a tree?’
‘Twenty years ago.’
‘When is the next best time?
‘Now.’
-The Overstory, by Richard Powers
The best time to plant a tree
is twenty years ago.
The next best time is today.
So, plant a tree. Today. Go.
The best time to stop caring so much
about what others think about you
is twenty years ago.
The next best time is today.
It’s time to walk away and let them be.
The best time to dance and enjoy your luscious body
is twenty years ago.
The next best time is today.
Swing and sway your hips. Dip down low and dance.
The best time to start running, or meditating and pray
is twenty years ago.
The next best time is today.
So sit. Or move. Or love
yourself for the very first time in your life.
The best time to declare your love
or leave the marriage
is twenty years ago.
The next best time is today.
Take heart. Say what needs to be said. And move on.
The best time to release who you really are
and finally say what you’ve actually been thinking all along
is twenty years ago.
The next best time is today.
Become the one you have always been
but aren’t just yet. Start now. Start right now.