I wasn’t ready to save the world, at least not by myself, but this is what I was told after college. “You’ll save the world,” resounded baby boomers, friends of my parents, who must have somehow felt their saving abilities had passed. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do–I knew I wanted to write, and to be happy, but in the spring and summer of 2009, what I knew more than anything was that I could not hold the wants and expectations of others; it was all I could do to just to find the scattered pieces of myself in a time of great transition.
So, in 2009 when it may have seemed smarter to make decisions with my head, I instead threw out the valiant idea of saving the world and followed my instinct, my heart, on a much more important journey to let the world save me. The looping path led me from Vermont to New Zealand, Tasmania, Alaska, and back to Vermont again, and now here I am, on a western slope facing the Worcester Range, with a husband, two dogs, fifteen acres, a burgeoning farm, and a baby growing inside me.If you’ve read my journey from my first blog post, you know how I got here. But what I’ve learned is that how I got here is not always as important as the fact that I am here. Sometimes, I feel full of possibilities with everything surrounding me. Other times, I look at our bank account and wonder how we will ever get to where we’re going. We keep moving, though, finding a balance between our heads and our hearts, and from it all I am learning patience and how things take time. I am learning the beauty of slowness, though one day we will look back and say how quickly it all happened. I am learning the pace of moment to moment, allowing things to unfold as they are ready, and as I am ready. We take in only as much as we can hold, and then we overflow, and both the filling and the flowing are beautiful.
It has been a while since I’ve heard the declaration, “You’ll save the world,” and I admit I don’t miss it. It it not to say that I don’t love the world, though. After all I’ve experienced, perhaps this is what I’ve learned: the world doesn’t need to be saved, it just needs to be known. So let yourself be filled, and let yourself overflow. There is so much still to discover.
Yes, the owl did bring changes…and with them, transformation. Wow, a baby, congrats!!!
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Beautiful, my friend. As always. Miss you dearly!
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Thanks, Kate! Miss you too!
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Yes. The world can only be saved by each person, from within. Be well.
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Balance. You nailed it. You found it also, it seems. Great thoughts. Thank you.
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You are so right. If we really knew the world it would not need to be saved because we would not act as we do.
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Such a marvelous post. I went back and reread your first post; your connectedness to nature just spills out of your writing. You are a joy to read.
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