In the last 2 years, there has been a sudden unprecedented real estate development in my neighborhood. Every few months, a new high rise residential building is being completed and immediately being occupied by eager apartment seekers. As a result, it is inevitable to notice the various construction sites that appear like huge scars on the smooth skin of the scenic landscape.

In particular I noticed one huge site a few hundred metres from where I live. When work began on the site, all you could see were piles of red soil as the excavators dug deep underground in order to reach a suitable level from where to start the foundation. The soil would be carted away from the site in large trucks that disrupted the peace of the neighborhood by making loud noises while stirring clouds of dust from a ground that had already been baked in the hot February sun. When the excavation ended, construction materials were delivered and the construction work began.

This site reminds me of the work that each one of us has to do in order to develop. And develop we must if we decide to move from where our parents, our teachers, or our religion leave us. I would say that they leave us at the ground level, with some green grass planted carefully in order to cover the dirt below, just as a construction site appears before work begins. And despite the nice appearance of the scenic view, we always know that we want something more, and that is when we decide to construct. And we visualize the skyscrapers that we would eventually want to put up; reaching all the way to the sky.

But what really surprises many people – and it shouldn’t – is that when they eventually decide to get to work, they have to start by digging down instead of going up. If it is a new business, one has to invest money, time, and energy, without seeming to know where it is going. It would seem as if all these resources are being poured down a hole into the ground, which is not far from the truth if you consider that you are building a foundation. If it is building upon spirituality, one finds themselves in a most painful place where old beliefs have to be discarded and a completely new relationship with self and Creator has to be cultivated from scratch. This period of discomfort might take years to overcome and one wonders if they are not just wasting their time with this stuff? But as with a foundation that causes an eye sore to a formerly beautiful landscape and rocks the serenity of the neighborhood, it is necessary.

Many people are tempted to give up when they notice that they are moving in the opposite direction from where they want to go. And they are right in telling themselves that they are going in the opposite direction, but which turns out to be the correct direction since a person has to go down in order to build a foundation. Giving up would be like abandoning a construction site when one realizes that the foundation is taking too long to complete.

When I look at the construction in my neighborhood, it is still moving up slowly; one stone at a time. I know that in a few months, it will be complete and ready for occupation. By that time, it will rise up several floors into the air, the exteriors will have a colorful and exotic finish, the ground will be evened out with tarmac and beautiful patches of grass and flowers. And the thoughts of the excavators digging down and the huge volumes of soil that had to be discarded from the site, the careful effort of cementing one stone on top of another to put up the structure, and all the other work that was involved in the construction, will be memories to be cherished for a job well done.