When life’s frivolities and difficulties clog up our attention spans and seemingly crush our spirits, it is worth remembering that the written word, among other forms of expression, can contain the very essence of humanity.
Meaningful and significant expressions remind us of this essence and all that it renders possible. This can be noted in a grand sense, as is often the case with the sort of mark that great art leaves on the collective cultural psyche. But it can also be noted in a more personal (and often forgotten) sense, such as a thoughtful note from those who are dear to us.
The art of the personal, tactile written word is one that is practiced precious little. We fail to see it as an art due to its lack of grandeur with its pared down presentation of ink and paper. The precious resource that is time and our lack of it as per the reality of the rush and weight of modern existence pares down our awareness of its significance, and what time is left when all is said and done is thrown away to mindless preoccupation that never satisfies the connection that is sought. Certainly not the way a real, well-thought out note from one person to another can.
The mental exhaustion of modernity and the malaise that is mindless scrolling are new modes of being that dull our perspective about the size and scale of our impact. Like an absent-minded woodworker neglecting to sharpen his tools, we forgo sharpening our perspective, and with it, further awareness of our impact. Our choices and the character they wink at reveal a great deal about our perspective. They also speak to our capacity for making our mark in ways that truly matter to those who matter.
Building and maintaining a more measured perspective and the mindfulness it fosters is a process and one that is hardly pristine. We warmly greet the soft lessons of lesser efforts yet grapple with the burning clarity harder lessons, in all their stumbles and scrapes, give way to. They colour the approach we take when measuring ourselves against the wider world. In error, we look to its vastness for answers about the wholeness we seek in our own little lives, but the answers are to be found in the smaller worlds we inhabit; they are the lives and communities we build in the precious moments we decide to be intentional with.
When fear, doubt, and overwhelm are threatening to pull us under like quicksand and chomping at the bit to devour the air supply that is our sanity, it is worth remembering that there is resilience to be found within ourselves and through the loved ones in our lives. A formal written record brimming with recognition of who we are and what we are appreciated for by those who are closest to us can be the very thing that strengthens our drive to conquer that quicksand.
