how big is a bushel?

its-a-wonderful-life-3

“Hide it under a bushel?  NO!  I’M GONNA LET IT SHINE.”

How big is a bushel?

And just what am I hiding my light under?

I wrote a blog post about Lloyd Kahn yesterday…and it got me thinking about “right livelihood” again.

Of course, if your talent in life is finding ways to be dissatisfied with what you’re doing in the moment…while you imagine some “pie in the sky” perfect activity or occupation…then I suppose you have some major work to do.

There are going to be some things to figure out.

03 That’s What the Lonely Is For

Maybe one of the real gifts of being a parent is when things sometimes accelerate to the point where self-absorption is a lot harder than it used to be?

Although, if I’m up and writing this a couple of hours before everyone else gets up, I may need to back away a little farther from “self-absorption” than I think.

Being so self involved that you feel you need to write about how to escape self-absorption is kind of psychotic.

Not that I’m psychotic or anything.  They don’t allow psychotic mailmen.

I don’t think that a recognizable part of being a “good parent” is total self-absorption.  It’s not something that’s celebrated in all the “parenting” literature.

Being selfish is bad.  That’s an established idea.

But wouldn’t it be a fantastic gift to give to our children to be able to be employed at the thing that brought us complete joy? How selfish do we need to be for that to happen?

Or is it only a matter of blooming where we’re planted?

I love the old movie It’s a Wonderful Life.  The old movie with Jimmy Stewart….where the angel shows him what kind of effect his life’s had on the world?  I cry every time I watch it…and I know it by heart.

In the movie, Jimmy’s character, George Bailey, is down on himself because he’s sure that he’s wasted his life.  He wasn’t the success he envisioned.  He didn’t have the big life he’d hoped for.

Most of his self perceived short comings came about because he made choices based on other people’s needs.

Anyway…the angel shows him what the world would have been like if he hadn’t been around to make a difference.

It’s pretty eye-opening for George to see it in its true light.

I love that movie.

So…once again…how big is a bushel ?

What have I set in motion that allows me to “hide my light”?

I don’t really know.  It’s hard to see the big picture when you’re just working on getting through the day…although nothing feels wasted when you’re just busy living in the moment.

But when you snap awake at three in the morning, with a question like “what’s this all about?” stampeding through your head, it’s hard to let it rest until you’ve pondered it long enough to realize again that it’s a question without an easy answer.

I don’t know how big a bushel is.  I don’t even know how big a hectare is.

I do know that if you never reach for something, you don’t even have a shot at figuring it out.

But if you’re hiding under a bushel basket at least you’re out of the rain.

And if it’s not raining, you’ll never know it.

 

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