There's a quote I came across at some point in the past two years, which I keep now above my desk at work:
"Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least." --Goethe
It's just become one of those life mantras I absolutely adore, and it reminds me how unbelievably silly we all can be. We throw away friendships and relationships for the stupidest possible things, misconceptions and mistaken understandings more often than any other. We quit jobs, we leave programs, and we otherwise make reckless decisions based on one bad day, experience, or interaction.
So much of life's good gets thrown away with the bad. The baby is thrown out with the bath water, and the nose is cut off to spite the face.
The older I get, the sillier I realize we all are. And it's in the midst of this silliness-recognition process that you really begin to see the absolute beauty of life, instead of the other way around. You break two eggs into the pan to cook up some breakfast, before you realize a little piece of shell fell in. The egg is bubbling away, and it's too difficult to get just that little piece of shell out on its own. So you dig out a piece of the egg too, just to be sure you got the shell out. The breakfast isn't ruined, and the majority of the eggs will still be fine.
When we let the things which matter least mess up the things which matter most, we've totally relinquished common sense. We've allowed our melting heartstrings to bubble up in the pan, instead of just taking a wide-angled view of the situation, and fixing the small issue calmly.
The photo I'm attaching here is a shot Andy took of me on Ka'anapali Beach in Maui in May, 2012. At the moment this photo was taken, I was looking around for a safe place to move into the water, as there was a lot of underwater coral in the area. We were leaving Hawaii the next day to head back to New York after 10 full days there, and though most of my amateur snorkeling time I was in a more secluded area, on this day we were in a crowded (for Maui) stretch of beach. We came over to this area because I was hoping I'd see my first sea turtle, but the search wasn't looking good.
When I look at this photo now though, I see two things. I see all the frustration, disappointment, and anxiety I was feeling, but I also see the people further out, and I remember they were the ones I swam with minutes later. They were the ones who called out, "Turtle!" They were the ones who followed a giant sea turtle (several feet long) as it swam into shore right out in front of me. And they were the ones who, after we all saw the turtle under the water, shared a moment of purest bliss with me. We were strangers, but as our heads came up from under the water, our faces all mirrored the same amazing emotion, huge smiles from ear to ear as we looked at each other completely speechless, in awe of nature, in love with life.
It's all about perspective, and taking a moment to look back from any given situation from a better view. And how about that view!
There are so many ridiculously silly things that happen throughout our lives, and so many miniscule events and interactions that shape way too many of our life experiences. Eggshells have no right spoiling our breakfasts, and things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least. Life's too fucking short!
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