The first thing people said when they heard that my passport expired and I needed to travel to Montreal was, “Well, at least you’ll get a good blog post out of it!”
I haven’t written that post, yet</>, but I will. Meanwhile, it got me thinking about how this blog has really become the lens through which I view my life. It is hard to believe that more than a year has passed since I began this Musing for Meaning blog. And if you would have asked me a year ago if I thought I had material for the 55 or so articles I have written, I would have laughed.
Fortunately, no one asked.
This blog has become the lens through which I view my lifeAnd the truth is that I really didn’t have the material for the pieces I wrote. However, because I committed to writing the blog, I started to view everything in my life as an opportunity for a lesson, and that lesson became the content of these blog posts.
So often we have options that are available to us, but we don’t take them, we don’t move forward, because we just can’t envision how it will pan out. We might really want to get in shape, but we don’t want to buy a gym membership because in the back of our mind we wonder if we will really ever use it. And yet, by buying that membership, the chances of actually going become that much greater. Because only once we make an investment do we care enough to want to carry through.
This is why we are taught hamaaseh hu ha’ikar, it is the action that matters. We can have great thoughts, we can have the best of intentions, but if we don’t actualize them, they don’t count for much. We all have our regrets. All the things we meant to do, that we were going to do, that we had hoped to do . . . but didn’t.
I had always wanted to go and visit my grandfather when we lived in Israel. But I had two babies, and I was pregnant, and the bus ride was so long and miserable. And all the excuses in the world don’t change the fact that I never saw him that one last time to say goodbye. At his funeral, his caretaker met me and was so happy to see me. He said that my grandfather would always hold a picture of me and ask when I was coming, and that he spoke of me often. But I never made it.
We shouldn’t have to wait for tragic things to happen to remind us of the importance of the presentWe shouldn’t have to wait for tragic things to happen to remind us of the importance of the present. And whatever we commit to beginning today, as small as it may seem, will quickly begin to add up and make a huge difference. It is so easy to push off what we need to do until tomorrow. After all, what is one more day? But a year from now, we will be so happy we made that change today. A year from today we will look at what we accomplished, the pieces we wrote, the weight we lost, the friends we spent time with, and we will see how it all started with one day.
So, 55 articles later, I wonder how I will keep writing another 55. But I have learned that I don’t need to worry about that. I need to worry only about writing one, the one I am currently writing. I have no idea what will unfold in the coming day or week that will be the content of my next piece. But something will happen that I will feel the need to write about. And the best part is that by looking for the meaning in every situation, I have really started finding it. Nothing happens that doesn’t allow us the chance for development and the chance for change.
It hasn’t been the easiest of years. But if I had to think back to what happened, I would most likely remember the most difficult parts. What didn’t go right. But so much more happened that I could so easily forget. Beautiful moments. Meaningful encounters. Transforming situations. They weren’t often the big things. All the more so, the small things can make the biggest impact. And thanks to these weekly pieces, I can always remember them and remind myself that a lot happened this past year. I am not who I was a year ago when I began this, and by next year I will no longer be who I am today. But as long as we keep putting those thoughts into actions, commit to growing, and just “do,” then every passing day will only get us closer to our goals.
So, what do you hope to accomplish in this coming year, and how you can start that process today?
