“One Thought, Fills Immensity.” –William Blake
I live by a river that isn’t quite ten thousand years old yet. Periodically, it floods its banks and leaves behind debris in the cracked earth. One year, the water receded and left behind a curious marvel locked in the mud like a homely gem:
A single stone had carved a rippling wake of dirt behind it, refusing to relinquish its spot to the raging currents. This drab lump of rock would hardly be noticed nestled in the soft and tender grass blades. Nor was it the least bit dazzling by human standards of mineral glamor!
But lodged squarely in the muck, this stubborn stone took on a metaphorical glimmer that my mind could not ignore, reminding me:
Hold your spot.
Sometimes when the news smacks me with waves of inescapable doom and dire forecasts of future gloom, I feel like it won’t be long now before I crumble into a pile of cowardly pebbles. Pftt! AGAIN? I disintegrate into melancholic particles with the dust of the day.
The same day that my mother unexpectedly died about seventeen years ago, I was feeling grumpy and out of sorts. She hugged me, and said, “You’ve got to have a firm mind.” Those were her very last words to me before she left for dialysis and passed away from a sudden blood clot.
Mom, I’m trying, but some days—
No human can escape this feeling in life, because it’s simply the pain of a mind taking up space, form, and breath. But this muddy little stone? Such a dull gray jewel—ungleaming, and yet unyielding. It held its own spot against the impossible eddies, anyway.
And maybe, our own spot feels very small and buried under smothering layers and fierce currents sometimes. Hold out anyway, Little One-off! There will never be another clump of carbon shaped exactly like so. Like you, star dustling.
And while one may never feel shiny or steadfast enough to face each day, even the quietest presence does not go unmarked in the world. Our track is wider than we will ever fully know under this mortal spell—wider than wings.
Faceless cameo,
You never needed a name.
You hold your true worth.
~*~
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