Wait for it.

Why haven't I been worrying about rising Chlamydia rates in Minnesota or whether the BP "static kill" takes? Because other people have been. I, on the other hand, spent most of June -- and the better part of July -- obsessing about whether these berries were Juneberries or chokecherries.

Most of my people would laugh if they knew. If the berry ripens in June, they'd say, it's a Juneberry. And we'd eat it. If it ripens at the end of July, it's a chokecherry. And we'd leave it. Without a cup of sugar to wash a chokecherry down, the tannins will strip the inside of your mouth and then turn what's left inside out.

I waited because I wanted them to be Juneberries. I wanted to eat them. Also, I'd diagnosed them in May using my rudimentary leaf identification skills. I didn't want to be wrong.

The same kind of thinking held up an article I was trying to write. An editor I know had asked me to write a piece about something topic -- a bike trail. I wanted to do it. That trail has served me well. I focused and thought hard. But the piece wouldn't happen. I couldn't find a message that mattered to me.

Then I remembered the chokecherries.

If, today, you're struggling to see something that is reluctant to show itself -- the answer to the question, a memory, perhaps the next sentence in the story that you're living or writing -- then it's not the right day. You don’t have all the information you need. Stop looking at it. Breathe. Pray. Wait. Turn away from the berry and look back toward life.

Then shut off your caller ID. Don't try to stop life because you're waiting for the right thing to show up. Accept what comes.

That's what I did. I laid the article down. I Breathed. I prayed. When my phone rang, I answered it and said yes to a friend who was asking me to have a firsthand experience with her -- and nowhere near that bike trail. That experience resulted in the piece that wanted written. The editor loved it. Everything ripened when it was time.

Look at the chokecherries and remember that the answer, when it ripens, will be exactly the right one and will arrive exactly on time.