Schools, big corporations, government — by necessity, they reduce us into tiny pieces, they just choose to see us for one tiny fraction of what we are.
I understand the reason, yet it also makes me sad sometimes.
Each of us has so much more depth. We have stories to tell, past to study, lessons learned. We have much to share.
But when they don’t ask for the whole of us, it’s hard to know where to go, to offer more of what we have.
When your whole life is spent that way, it’s easy to forget that there’s more, we have more in us than we are asked to give.
And then when we venture out, in search of the real hole we’re supposed to fill — they try to slap and shove us back in place.
Leeches
They preach to us
Words of wisdom from blocked mindsA tear for the poet
That can’t be heard
Praise the artist that stealsSpit me out
I’m glad I don’t belong
Save me the speech
You’ll be forgotten and goneIt burns
It rips it hurts
They make you bleed your turn
The chance of a lifetime
How does it feel to be alive?
The thing is, it hurts either way. The life of being boxed in, or the life of spreading out.
There’s no question which one has the chance to be more rewarding and fulfilling. But that path also hurts more in an immediate, vivid way. The pain of reducing ourselves is more numbing, easier to suppress and ignore, at least for a while.
Just like breaking our muscles to make it stronger — some growth comes with pain. If you’re not used to it, it can overwhelm and disorient you.
But I invite you to embrace it with open arms. It’s not going to last, it’s not going to wipe you out. It’s how it feels to be really alive.
Because a painless life is not really life.