Sometimes change comes suddenly. Sometimes it comes on so gradually that you can’t point to the distinct moments when change took place. But you are the living proof that change has occurred.
I am living my whole-hearted, half-ass life. I am choosing to put aside my overachieving nature and embrace simply achieving. And being content with achieving much less at that. Like the warm week in December when we spent days by the river instead of with our eyes glued to workbooks.
I am that mom who takes her kids to the river in December to play with rain boots on because it is randomly 75 degrees for a few days in a row. I’m the mom who, on the second day having brought my own rain boots as well, joins them in the water and helps to build a dam with small rocks. Rocks so small that as you hold it in your hand and look out at the water you think, this is going to take forever. This rock is too small to hold back this water. And yet you place the rock, and grab another. And then another. And you feel like you aren’t making any progress because those first several rocks are simply foundational. You add another small rock. And then another. And “suddenly” the littlest bit of rock is sticking out above the surface of the water. And you smile. And add another small rock.
On a warm and sunny December weekday, the kids and I built a twelve foot long and one foot tall dam in the side waters of the river. With small rocks. We diverted water flow. With small rocks. Consistently added. Each too small to make a notable difference. The sum of them changing the course of a river. (To a small degree, but still.)
We could’ve stopped when we didn’t find any large rocks. We could’ve stopped when we found large rocks we couldn’t move. We could’ve stopped when the small rocks didn’t seem enough to make any change.
We didn’t stop.
We kept adding small rocks. One at a time. Consistently. Joyfully. Contentedly. And each time a rock poked its rounded top above the surface of the water we rejoiced. Each time a rock sank beneath the water because it was building an unseen foundation we trusted.
My heart is full. Of so many small rocks that have been given to me to place in the river. They have had an effect. The course has been diverted.
What I Learned: Do not despise small beginnings. Or small continuing-s. Small changes add up to large changes. Keep going.
Trust the process.
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