April 8, 2022
In my recent creative writing for The Brick Dandelion, I wrote about the soul capture in the sight of my skull provided to me by the preparations of an oral surgeon. I was transfixed, inspired in the pure biological mechanics of a mineral armored skull and the spiritual significance of its gift by a creator of all. The scan was not such a small thing.
Gut-wrenching stories bleed from the streets and buildings of the Ukraine. Today the United Nations voted to remove – oops, I mean ‘suspend’ – Russia from the Human RIghts Council. A person should be able to write upon the topic of war with words of battlefield and tactics. Strategy.
Instead, the world watches an invasion. We watch a destruction as homes are destroyed. We watch murders as bombs explode. We watch pedestrians and bicyclists die as tanks grind through neighborhoods. We are watching the unthinkable happen in real time. The actions of Russia are not small things.
But the grip with which we identify is glued in the details of life. A woman perished while riding her bicycle. Her dirtied hand, with a painted red-heart nail, revealed her identity. To this woman, the manicure she had received symbolized her celebration of self-love. Shot, riding her bicycle, she had returned to help, the news report details. Her death was witnessed by a drone videoing tank operations in a Ukrainian city.
A little thing such as a red-heart nail reached the world.
I have not even mentioned other big news of United States inflation, the cause of indigenous peoples with 19th century boarding schools, and the just confirmed Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Big. Big, big.
Of late, I am having success with little things. Such undertaking is not a source of new wisdom. And that is often the case. The best wisdom seems to always be the lessons from long ago that I have dismissed. Want to budget better? Want to control your expenses? (Psst., pay attention to those little expenses. Track them, manage them.)
Want to better your health? Run two extra flights of steps (a recent addition to my exercise). Watch those little food and drink additions into your meal routine. Watch what you feed yourself. You are an organism. You are a grand organism with a soul and delicately complicated thought capabilities. Still you are an organism. Feed yourself. Biology. Boom. That’s it.
Can you tell I have had many self-discussions on these topics?
After satisfying my organism needs, I decided that bettering my writing is dependent upon increasing my reading. A part of me had always been fearful that reading someone else’s work would cause imitation on my part. (Plus I was lazy-headed). Read Stephanie. Read.
The result? I would like to think that my grammar and vocabulary are improving. Not in leaps and bounds, but I think I second guess myself less. I reread my words to self-check.
I have also learned to begin to stop. In some situations, a better course for me would be to stop rather than accept hurtful behaviors. I can stop my acceptance by saying ‘no’ or by the limitation of my participation. I finally decided to care about the impact of those behaviors. I would get exhausted, confused, and unfocused.
While I fully appreciate the resilient beauty of my skull, I also respect the fifty-six years that have aged my system. I am finite.
With the bigness of the world, my little improvements seem so trivial. But those little things are perfect for me – for just a speck of the world. And that is the beauty of existence, isn’t it?
May you have minuscule bites of happiness. May your little things be the big things of life..
~stephanie
Stephanie Springborn 