Bigger Than the Current Small
“You have treasures hidden within you—extraordinary treasures—and so do I, and so does everyone around us. And bringing those treasures to light takes work and faith and focus and courage and hours of devotion, and the clock is ticking, and the world is spinning, and we simply do not have time anymore to think so small.” – Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic
I’m cranking away at my work, building as much momentum as I can to carry this ship as far as possible across the chasm of our current reality. The harder I work, the less I worry about pandemics and the economy and things out of my control. All we control is what we do today, how we react to the larger world swirling madly around us, and who and how we interact with others. On the whole things are going okay at the moment. We’ll see how the next moment goes when we get there.
Still, there’s this underlying restlessness to get going already. More to write than I’m writing. I can’t travel far to see the world in its present state, but surely I can write more. We can all create something bigger of ourselves, can’t we? I believe it starts with thinking bigger than the current small, pushing beyond the borders around our day. Holding yourself to a higher standard. And so that’s where I’m focused. I’m producing thousands of words every week in this blog, but I can do much more than this. We all have these treasures that need to be brought to light, as Gilbert writes in her call to action. I’m not at all unconvinced that there’s more there, my challenge is getting myself to bring it to light.
“I wish I could show you,
When you are lonely or in darkness,
The Astonishing Light
Of your own Being!”
– Hafiz, My Brilliant Image
I’ve been aware of the time going by, as Jackson Browne put it. And I’ve been too patient with my use of that time, certainly more than I should be. There’s only now, so why are you waiting to use this time for anything else? Well, because the home renovations need to get completed, and your customers need support, and your family needs your focus, and the cat just threw up on the carpet and it needs to be cleaned up, and on and on. It’s not easy to bring your astonishing light out when you’re cleaning up cat puke. But still, it’s there, bursting at the seams, frustrated and slowly dimming as you passed it over yesterday and maybe today and tomorrow too. Light doesn’t need your excuses, it needs to get out and shine on the rest of the world.
To be fair, that light in us comes out in the interactions with others, in our careers and parenting and even in those home renovations. Light has a way of shining through when you open yourself up to the world. I’m not diminishing that particular light, but you and I both know when we leave something on the table. There’s work left undone and it’s light fades with every moment. So I’m doubling down on the writing, the writing not yet seen by the world or in this blog, working to get it out. Shouldn’t we all make the most of our time?
“In the long run men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, though they should fail immediately, they had better aim at something high.” – Henry David Thoreau, Walden