We tend to think in big hunks. All or nothing. A bowl of ice
cream, not just a bite. Hours, rather than minutes. The whole enchilada.
Burning bushes. Crossing the Rubicon. A year instead of a tiny powerful moment.
But we do not have to live this way. In fact, we might live
more fully – more grounded in this sparkling Planet Earth – if we can cherish
the dandelions.
This week has been punctuated by stories of cancers,
familiars or loved ones dying, job losses, divorces, conflicts of all sorts,
excruciating body pain, mental or emotional anguish; these are just a
sampling of that to which I have borne witness. At large, in the world
too, a barrage of homelessness, refugees, wars, slayings, despair, inequities
of every stripe, wildfires run amok. How can we make our slice of difference in
this kind of world?
We do so when we take two deep breaths, noticing the pause
between them.
We do so when we offer to a soon-jobless stranger the contact information of a free business consultant.
We do so when we make the small invitation to meet for
coffee. Or listen quietly on the phone.
We do so when we offer organic, innocent humor that mocks
nobody.
We do so when we allow our veneer (…of professionalism, of
helpfulness, of politeness…) to crumble and we speak the persistent voice of our
passion.
We do so when we send the short note of
encouragement.
We do so when we choose not to mow down the dandelions in
the dead-anyway-drought-grasses, allowing their golden clusters to brighten our
inner (and outer) landscape.
It is these small plantings of seeds that keep us in balance.
That keep us from tipping over into the impossibility of All-ness. It is this
taking.a.bit.at.a.time that unsticks us from the stuckplace and moves us back
into the flow toward fullness, toward a world made whole. These seemingly tiny movements
create ripples that serve, that save, that savor.
All blog images created &/or photographed by Jennifer J. Wilhoit unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: "©2014 JenniferJWilhoit/TEALarbor stories. AllRightsReserved."
