When you’re used to doing things BIG, it takes some work to begin doing things small. And I know my kindred spirit understands what I’m talking about.
She’s about to celebrate her 50th birthday, it’s long past for me. This is a new season of life and it is chock-full of potential. At this point, for most of us, we have determined that what other people think of us and say about us is pretty much their business and we’re not really interested. Talk about freedom. Hallelujah! So much drama is now water under the bridge and we have a better eye for what it is that we want our future days to include, should we be so lucky to have future days. As we often hear when we complain about getting old - not all souls have the opportunity, so let’s be thankful.
But here is something I think we never imagined being true for ourselves, we have to learn to think small. In our youth and vigor we were accustomed to diving in to most things head first, volunteering, organizing, raising a family, moving entire households - sometimes across town, sometimes across country. Being military spouses, we never flinched when it was time to do all the things on our own when our soldiers were absent from our homes. We learned to do all that we could on our own and knew where to seek help with the things we couldn’t. Much of the time it turned out other women sought out our experience and support and, mostly, they received it.
It seems that just as time and circumstances suggest we slow down, our minds don’t get that message; they are still thinking big thoughts, dreaming big dreams, imagining big adventures. The difference is, all that wonderful, creative energy that was perhaps used to fuel good things for larger bodies of people now gravitates closer to home. We sense that time is more precious than ever and we are driven to make the very best use of it, which brings our highest priorities into sharper view. It demands that we start thinking smaller and simpler. This is not a bad thing, but it is challenging learning to reign those big thoughts in and seeing how they fit into the smaller places.
We’ve never been known to refuse a good challenge though, have we Robin? Here’s to big thoughts for small places.