Notes To My Younger Self:

A friend of yours will tell you a story. A story that will shift your thinking around imperfections. Listen carefully.

Coined as the “Big Sky State”, Oklahoma was living up to its reputation this evening as my friend set off to mow his acreage. Riding on his tractor, he was enjoying the expansive layers of corals and cobalt stretching across the canvas of open sky, when his attention was grabbed by a section of posts in his fence line. Dammit. He cursed. Hadn’t he just finished repairing the miles of fence a few weeks back? He cursed again, this time with an eye roll. Add it to the never ending to-do list. As he continued to mow, his mind went round and round, like a tire spinning in mud, stuck on that section of broken fence. How did it happen? He’d just repaired it? When in the world would he have time to fix it again? His schedule was more than swamped. Great. Just when he’d thought he was getting in front of all the home projects. He was so unlucky. His thoughts told him. 

For the next four hours, he continued to mow and his thoughts complained about his bad luck and the pending inconvenience. By the time he arrived back at the house, the sun had set. As he climbed off the tractor, he paused and stared at the fence line that ran off into the darkness and a different kind of thought surfaced. A thought that knocked him back. He’d missed it. Focused on that one single section, instead of miles and miles of perfect fence, he had missed the reason he had organized his schedule to mow at this time of day. He’d missed the spectacular sunset the big sky had graciously offered him. All he had to do was choose to enjoy it. 

E.L. Chappel author of Spirit Dance/Storm Makers/Coming Very soon: The Surge

Don’t miss all the beauty while focusing on a crack.

aka A woman with a purpose.