Tokens

There is a saying that I reckon describes me to a tee.  “I’m not one who’s got it all in place telling you what you should do, I’m just one old hungry beggar showing you where I found food.”
I was asking myself this morning why would that sum me up?  What was incredibly obvious to me was that I am a work in progress.  Sometimes I get it right, and sometimes I get it wrong.  Naturally I would like to be able to say I always get it right, but you would not need to spend long with me to know that is not the truth.
Yet a coin always has two sides.  I really do not mind one side becoming faded and seeing the other side get shinier and shinier.  Yet what amazes me is that as I allow one side to fade it actually gets shinier.
There is a show on tv I really do not like, yet each time I pass the tv and it is on I invariably stop and watch (Tipping Point).  When a contestant gets a question right, they get access to tokens.
They release a token and the object is that token pushes others and whatever lands in a slot down further represents money.  What I do not like is it is the most chance driven quiz show I know of.  Yet it does represent for me a lesson I begrudgingly admit to.
I will do my best, but I do not know which tokens will fall.  It can be a lot, or it can be just one - it does not matter (in the show it does).  All I can do is my best with whatever happens.  Some tokens I really enjoy like getting married, the friends I have, where I live.  Others I really don’t like falling.  Like losing friends, ill health, accidents, and the effects of age.
Yet even though I do not know which token will fall, it is up to me to make sure I do not squander that token but make the most of what it represents.  Easier said than done.  Some tokens I would like to replace with ones I would prefer.  Yet I have found I do not have that choice.  As they say I need to deal with the hand I’m given.  And unlike cards there is no such thing as a bad hand.  Bad made good.
What blows me away is that when I when I accept the tokens that are for me the coin that is me gets shinier and shinier on both sides. 
It makes sense to me.  I had a friend who was into publishing who used to sometimes wonder how I got from there to there.  I attempt these days to write with that in mind.
I want the coin that is me to be shiny on both sides. Most coins have a ruler on one side and a scene or something on the other.  It is beyond me but for my coin as the ruler becomes clearer and clearer the other side does too.  The term reflected glory comes to mind.  Yet the shininess of the coin depends on what I do with my tokens.