The Water Hyacinth

I have to admit, sometimes I do have moments when I wonder if the actions I take are leading me forward to my goals and causing me to grow. Anyone who can relate, here is a story that supports me in remembering that I can't always see the results of the growth that is taking place.

The water hyacinth is a beautiful, delicate-looking little plant. Prized as an ornament, it sports six-petaled flowers ranging from a lovely purplish blue, to lavender, to pink. you can find it floating on the surface of ponds in warm climates around the world.
The water hyacinth is also one of the most productive plants on earth; it's reproductive rate astonishes botanists and ecologists. Although a single plant can produce as many as 5,000 seeds, the method it prefers for colonizing a new area is to grow by doubling itself, sending out short runner stems that become "daughter plants".
If a pond's surface is fairly still and undisturbed, the water hyacinth may cover the entire pond in thirty days.
On the first day, you won't even notice it. In fact the first few weeks you will have to search very hard to find it. On day 15, it will cover perhaps a single square foot of the pond's surface.....a barely significant dollop of color dotting the expanse of placid green.
On the twentieth day (two-thirds of the way to the end f the month), you may happen to notice a dense little patch of floating foliage, about the size of a small mattress.
On day 29, one-half of the pond's surface will be open water.
On the thirtieth day, the entire pond will be covered by a blanket of water hyacinth.
You will not see any water at all.
-From "the Slight Edge"

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." - Thomas Edison