How the Day Sounds
Sometimes I hate it when people say “in the grand scheme of things.” I’m one of the guiltiest of uttering this phrase. It makes me feel as if whatever I’m doing right now, this very instant is not important and really is a wash in the game play of life. When I feel I’m doing something monumental and I hear the phrase “but in the grand scheme of things” I want to bow my head, stick out my lower lip, and pout. My gargantuan accomplishment is huge to me, but inconsequential when looking at my life as a whole. Our lives are like massive puzzles, each little task is a piece. You know how when you put together puzzles there are pieces that are very descriptive? Like they have an eye or a particular flower they help you know exactly where it needs to go in the entire puzzle? Maybe that’s what our big accomplishments are; the descriptive pieces. The tricky part is the fact that we have no idea what our life’s picture puzzle looks like when finished.
I don’t know where that came from exactly, other than the fact that these things have been mulling around my mind for a few days. When it’s all said and done, are the things I do that important? If I miss a workout or eat sugar every now and then, does that make my life less valuable or pretty in the end? No, I don’t think so. The reason I think this is the feeling after we complete those big events. Right after I run a marathon I have this feeling that can’t be topped by anything, not even cupcakes. I’m untouchable. I’m riding in the clouds because I’ve done something that not too many people have done. And then I go to sleep and wake up the next morning and…now what? The euphoria doesn’t last long and you come crashing down back with the mortal folks who didn’t run a marathon the day before. So. What. Did my life change in some remarkable way because two days ago I hadn’t run a marathon and now I have? Nope. It was an experience and proved to me that I have the endurance and discipline to complete such a task, but other than that it is life as usual. Just like an infant learning new things every day, our big events teach us adult things: endurance, perseverance, structure, intimidation, confidence, humility, etc.
All this to say, our monumental accomplishments or even little things are important in the enviable grand scheme of things, but not how we’d like them to be. Rarely do they make us famous or change our lives to a new direction, but they do add up to making us who we are and what we believe. That’s a good thing. That’s a remarkable thing all in itself. I hope that my great achievements can be catalysts to spur on my life and to encourage others. Really though, how do we define a great achievement? Ah, a post for another day.
TODAY I LOVE: ripe bananas and the smell of cut grass
SONG OF THE DAY: “How the Day Sounds” by Greg Laswell
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Yep, I agree with you. In the grand scheme of things, the little things DO matter. We just don’t always remember the 101 small things we did that made the big success possible.