Discipline….what a strange word. Is it our friend or our enemy? Sometimes during the week it feels a little like both. How much do you drink, how much do you eat, how much do you spend, how much do you save?…..a barrage of questions that circle around us each day…and lo and behold it’s left to each one of us to come up with the magic formula that balances everything. Discipline….a strange shadow that follows us everywhere we go….reminding us when we stray too far…always there with a little tap, a little sigh, or a glancing stare. Discipline can be a voice inside of our heads, a comment by somebody close to us, or a stranger we pass on the street. I wonder though, how many dreams and goals can be accomplished without this funny little “friend” named Discipline, who gallantly comes along for the ride.

Some choose to ignore Discipline and push it into the corner of the room where the cobwebs gather, shrugging it off with not a care in the world, hoping it just goes away…but many times that is not to be. As we live, this little word begins to creep in to our families, our jobs, and our relationships until one day we come to a crossroads where we can go no further without it. Mutual respect is established.

What is Discipline? It can be many things. The rules you set down to live by…the food you eat everyday…prayer and meditation with God…the guidelines of your life. How important is it? Can a team win a championship without it? Can a building reach to the sky on a strong foundation without it? Can the Earth keep turning without it? Can Love be limitless without it?

Perhaps it’s meant to be that true Discipline has to be self-imposed, and can only last coming from within. It can be taught, it can be learned, but in the end the decision to implement it lays in our hands. Eventually, it is up to us to decide whether Discipline becomes our friend, or an enemy, but the value of its existence cannot be denied. We reap what we sow.

Tend your garden,

Jennifer Avalon
© 1999 Jennifer Avalon