Not so small...

Life isn’t about landmarks.  It isn’t about Point A and Point B.  It’s about the little things… the living, breathing, connective tissue that joins those big spaces in time and offers us a seemingly infinite number of tiny possibilities to choose…

To choose happiness over sadness, hope over despair, creativity over stagnation, or love over anger.  It is in those smallest of moments—when we are taken by surprise… when no one is looking… when the cameras aren’t rolling… behind the curtain… when we are immersed in the moment and not thinking about what comes next… or just watching a beautiful, little boy laugh as hard as he possibly can… it is upon these moments that our lives are built.  And, if we are really paying attention, we can learn such wonderful lessons about a life well-lived.

So, those little things… well, they aren’t really little at all.

Spark

Starting a fire is a delicate thing.   

You have to prepare the foundation so as to give that first spark enough opportunity to catch... 

to breathe... and to grow.  

You can't be so eager for it's warmth... it's glow... 

that you don't allow that initial touch of lightning to do what comes naturally in it's own time.  

You can coax it, but you can't force it.  

You must remain vigilant to its progress without meddling so much as to smother it's beginning.  

Not every spark will take.

Some fires burn out fast, some create everlasting ember and some... 

sadly... never share with the world anything beyond their initial brilliance, 

like a sparkler-child running through the twilight on the Fourth of July.

 

The secret is...

It doesn't matter.

There is no ground so damp it cannot be built upon,

Nor is there a darkness so deep that a single, solitary spark cannot illuminate...

For a second or a lifetime...

Well, that's up to us.

Around the Bend

I don't know where this path leads, but like so many times before, 

I set forth on a journey with a single step forward.

Everything seems... new... exciting... possible...

I don't know where I'll be once I get around that bend out of sight,

I know where I THINK I am headed, where, perhaps, I'd like to be...

But, certainty of destination... nope.

Certainty of purpose?  Yes.

And, most importantly... I know I am not alone.

For as we all know, it isn't so much the view as you go...

Or the finish line...

But who you're walking with.