Take your time
I took my first vacation in over a year last week.
My best friend and part-time roomie - @viamort - let me borrow a fancy camera to take with me. To say I had no fucking clue what to do with it would be a gross understatement. This tiny little machine - with its innumerable amount of buttons and settings - eluded me.
Cue this photo. The settings are wrong, it’s dark, it’s blurry, but it makes me pause every time I scroll through my photos.
Upon reflection, I realized it’s the photographic representation of the moment I find myself in right now. What’s in front of me is safe, worn in, and comfortable, but perhaps a little boring because I know it. It’s flat because I’ve been walking on it for a while. But what’s ahead? Although I can make it out, it’s blurry, untrodden, a little scary, but lush for discovery.
Therein lies the lesson; there are times for ease, settling, getting comfortable, and remaining. The challenge is deciding to leave when you’ve outgrown what it once - so generously - offered you. Not because you don’t love, cherish, or want it, but because you’ve received everything you needed. When you stay in a space you’ve outgrown, complacency and stagnation are your companions, and they only leave you to rot. It’s just…inevitable.
This photo reminds me that although the unknown may be ominous, unsettling, and uncomfortable, the beauty of what lies beyond can be seen, felt, and trusted. That view is beautiful from where I’m standing, but what does it look like on the other side? I don’t want to wonder, I want to know.
That desire requires a relinquishing of the comfort I am rooted in, to grow into the unoccupied and unknown space I want to fill. So that is what I will do. Slowly, methodically, and carefully. Instead of reacting abruptly to change my life, I will choose to respond with curiosity and patience. No sense in tearing down the whole thing when small shifts - over time - compound.
No need to rush, when I can take time to prepare. Slow, purposeful steps will allow me to take the best route through the unknown. It may take a bit more time, but I trust I’ll arrive safely on the other side.