“I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I have lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well”. Diane Ackerman
When I was in high school I took a class that started at 7AM so that I could get out of school earlier. It was an elective that most of the kids slept through or sat blankly staring off into space. We started each class with a quote – any random quote the teacher chose and were asked to comment on the quote. What did we think it meant? No one ever raised their hand except for me.
I love quotes. I love how something so short and insignificant can MEAN SO MUCH and CAN MEAN DIFFERENT THINGS TO DIFFERENT PEOPLE and even DIFFERENT THINGS ON DIFFERENT DAYS.
(The quote above was shared on a tapping app I have been practicing daily. If you are interested, tapping has been extremely helpful for me lately. Check it out here if you are interested. )
For the past month, I have been taking the time to slow down, enjoy spring, travel, spend time with family and notice all the change around me (+inside of me). If you feel like you are experiencing big changes internally or externally know you are not alone.
Back to quotes, for me, the width of life describes the small things, the things I only notice when I slow down to truly see what is around me. The width of life is something that we take in with our senses not our thoughts.
When you see the pink roses in full bloom, when you smell the scent of jasmine in the air, when you feel the warm hug of your two year old – suddenly you are awake even if it is just a moment. There is so much more to the day, there is so much more to life.
To me the length of life may describe happiness while the width of life describes JOY. We live in a world and I work in a field that is dominated by finding happiness but finding joy – that’s where the magic lies.
Happiness tends to be linked to achievement, things being good and outer validation. Joy is linked to simple pleasure, small moments, slowing down. A joke, laughter, the small feeling of connection in that moment and then it’s gone and we move onto the next moment. A FEW BIG QUESTIONS FOR YOU: are you living the length of your life and forgetting about the width? Are you just going through the motions and getting through the days? What would the width of life mean to you? What does it look, sound and feel like?
Take a few moments to consider the quote above – journal using the questions above and begin to envision what it would look like to live the width of your life as well. What would you be doing, noticing, expressing?
Sending love and light,
Orly
