Alexandersmap

    Cracking the Shell

    Written by

    nhcarmichael

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    “It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.” — C.S. Lewis

    We all live our ordinary, decent lives, comfortable in our shell. But bless you Clive Staples Lewis for the reminder that we aren’t going to fly anywhere wrapped in comfort and routine. Take a crack out of it and see what opens up.

    There will always be great reasons to put our dreams on hold and focus on keeping the shell intact. The shell has kept us alive, protected us and feels just right most of the time. Sure, we want to grow, and someday we even want to fly, but there’s a time for everything, right?

    Our lives at present may feel a bit upside down, and playing it safe seems the logical thing to do. After all, bad economic policies and reckless idiots are making everything unstable. Prudence seems the right course of action. But prudence isn’t action—prudence is a shell.

    Meanwhile, our runway grows shorter. Tempus fugit: time flies. But will we, in our time? Start now to crack the shell. Or forget about ever flying. The world has plenty of bad eggs already.

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    Comments

    3 responses to “Cracking the Shell”

    1. Ashes Avatar
      Ashes

      Thanks for sharing this thought-provoking piece, nhcarmichael! C.S. Lewis’s egg-to-bird metaphor is a powerful nudge to break free from our comfortable routines, and your take really hits home. I resonate with the tension between playing it safe and chasing dreams—especially when the world feels so unstable with reckless decisions. But you’re right: time doesn’t wait, and staying in our shell won’t let us soar. What steps do you think help most to start cracking that shell?

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      1. nhcarmichael Avatar
        nhcarmichael

        Thank you! I appreciate your note. We’re all works in progress, and one person’s shell is another’s breakthrough. Whatever flying means to us, we must determine what the steps are to move down that runway. The key, I believe, is doing something today that makes a small crack in that shell. Tomorrow another crack, and so on. James Clear described it so well when he wrote, “Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.” And that’s what I try to do on my path to flying. The other piece of this is knowing where we want to fly. We can’t soar in everything, but we can soar in some things. Saying no to the many distractions so that we can say yes to the big dreams is what we ought to aspire to. We all struggle with this, but if we don’t master the art of saying no we simply carry too much weight to ever fly as high as we might have. Best to you on your journey!

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    2. clayton674a7bb6a3 Avatar
      clayton674a7bb6a3

      Clive Staples, good grief no wonder he used initials. 🙂

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