Limitless

Author Mary Caroline Richards tells of visiting a four-year-old nephew and commenting on how much he'd grown since she'd last seen him. He replied, "Oh, I'm bigger than this!"*

Aren't we all? I believe we are "bigger" than we know. What can spiritual growth mean, if not the discovery of our true selves? And what can teaching or preaching be, if not enabling the sense of our true capacities?

The most perceptive among us know that we all can be more. The most skillful among us help us find that "more" - if not in person, then through their recorded lessons.

A hymn lyric I wrote says it this way:

Anew we learn and take to heart
the Wisdom passed from mind to mind.
For when we listen with our souls,
our calling, fresh, we there shall find.

It's this deep listening that allows us access to the wisdom of our predecessors, whether famous or one of the many random people with whom we cross paths. The calling I'm speaking of is not necessarily specific, but the awareness of our innate limitlessness.

Some of you may balk at the term "limitless." It's true that each of us deals with certain limits. I will probably never run a four-minute mile (or eight minutes, for that matter!). There are mundane limits unique to each individual, but our potential for growth is infinite. Who can't learn one more thing?

Any limit of this type is self-imposed, which means it's a lie. I heard a story about a man who told his friend that he always wanted to be an attorney. The friend encouraged him to do it. The man replied, "Oh no... I'm too old. By the time I finished, I'd be sixty years old!" The friend replied, "How old will you be if you DON'T do it?"

To ponder:

How do you limit yourself? Share by commenting!

* Centering: in Pottery, Poetry, and the Person, Wesleyan Univ. Press, 1989 (Amazon link)