As a tiny (seemingly unimportant) example, let me share something that happened this morning. I’d been looking forward to mowing the lawn. As many of you know, I enjoy maintaining our sweet little patch of yard, using the exercise as a kind of walking meditation. Well, I couldn’t get the mower to start. After checking the oil (which, for some odd reason, doesn’t ever seem to change levels), I discovered that it finally needed more. When I ducked into the shed to grab the oil can, I couldn’t find it anywhere. Our shed is fairly densely packed, since it holds the overflow from our single-wide mobile home. After a few minutes of frustration, I was ready to give up. No mowing today. Then, with a fresh burst of determination, I decided to take just one more minute to look. I peeked around a towering box—and sure enough, there was the oil.
Obviously, in the larger scheme of things, it wouldn’t have mattered if I mowed today or not. For meditation purposes, I could have gone for a walk or done any number of alternatives. But when I thought about this on a broader scale, I started to wonder: how many times have I been that close to discovery and have given up? Some days, there are so many reasons—so many heavy, logical excuses—to just throw in the towel and walk away. Exhaustion. Lack of funds. Practicality. But who’s to say that you aren’t twenty steps away from your goal? Or one step?
(Day 40 of 100 daily art journal entries: marker on cardstock)Take a moment to watch this video, won't you? I think you'll be just as inspired as I was. Just imagine: what if each of these people had given up, right before they had their "aha" moments?
Hang in there! You could be closer to your goal than you ever dreamed.
4 colorful comments:
absolutely inspirational post today. You are so right and I have experienced that myself...if I didn't give up and just took one more step, I accomplished what I had set out to accomplish.
Oh Amanda, I'm overwhelmed by this post. I visited your blog today with the intention of thanking you for all your past blogs, especially during this 100 project. I wanted to urge you to collect and publish them in some way for a broader distribution, since I felt you were doing such an incredible job of painting and sharing/finding quotes/writing your own inspirational words.
And then I read Day 40's post and I am just blown away.
The line that should be in flashing neon is: "how many times have I been that close to discovery and have given up?"
And then the video. Stunning. "If you have never failed, you've never lived."
Amanda, thank you. You are doing something deeply important here, and NO, I do NOT say that because I'm related to you. My feeling goes way beyond that.
Every one of us deserves to be SET FREE from self-criticism; feeling we aren't enough somehow; believing that "failing" means we should quit trying.
You obviously put much time and effort and thought into these daily posts, and they are doing MUCH to inspire me and keep me on my own path to freedom. Please please please find a way to share them even more than you do here.
This one single post of yours has inspired me to live today as extravagantly as I can, holding nothing back.
Bless you.
speaking of one step at a time...
day 40?
really?
What happened to having this huge project stretching out in front of us?
Almost half way done?
Really?
Just going little by little.
Crazy.
Brandi: what a treat--you're always the one inspiring me, so I'm thrilled to return the favor.
:) Keep on "one stepping"!
aqua: thank you for your touching and heartfelt response. This is exactly the kind of thing that helps keep me going, particularly when MY self-doubt kicks in (as it still does, although with less frequency). Something about just keeping at it, every day--EVERY day--helps keep those hounds at bay. :) Oh look, a rhyme. (Only because I knew you would point it out if I didn't.)
Rowena: I KNOW, right? Now we're really almost halfway through...and I'm actually dreading the end, instead of anticipating it. Funny how that works.
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