‘For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love.’ Carl Sagan
Sometimes life can make us feel so small and insignificant. When this happens you can be sure that fear has made its presence known in your world. Fear is sneaky- it can show up with a roar, or it can in the background and just hummmmmmm. However it shows up, it always blocks our connection to love and that is when the feeling small and insignificant begins.
I chose this quote tonight because it reminds me of the precipice I watch our 12 year old son teeter on each day. He is still so much a child, but every day he inches closer and closer to the edge of adulthood, peering over it to see the vastness below. He doesn’t have the words to tell me that he feels small and the future before him feels so vast- but I can see in his eyes that he moves from excitement to fear a hundred times in each day. This is how we all eventually leave childhood behind, but it still makes me want to scoop him up and keep him safe- which I cannot do for a lot of reasons- foremost among them he would elbow me in the ribs and tell me to knock it off because I’m embarrassing him.
So when the world seems vast and you feel small- find ways to connect to what you know to be love; family, friends, pets, nature, prayer- whatever it is that helps you feel part of something bigger. Yes, we may be small creatures, but we are small creatures who are able to walk across that bridge called love- and this is what makes our human lives full of greatness.