Break free from the tyranny of big
Remember that old verse:
"Do not despise the days of small beginnings?"
And then this one:
"Whoever is faithful in very little is also faithful in much?"
I used to think that these verses, even though they are about small things, are really about preparing you for the big things, as if they’re saying: everyone starts small, but the trajectory is towards big things. It should build over time. What started small shouldn’t remain small. You get somewhere big, grand, world and life-changing, that’s the goal.
I spent almost 30 years trying to do and believe and become “big things” for God. It turned out to be soul-destroying.
I discovered that in chasing a big life, I missed out on the everyday, ordinary miracles baked into the fabric of my being. I was too busy looking for grand, shiny, holy things, that I couldn’t see the wondrous small things coming together to form my life. I realized I was chasing something I already had.
These days, my world has gotten smaller. More intimate. More real. More doable. More alive with wonder and hope. More… liveable.
And isn’t that what we’re here to do? Live?
In the App this week, we’re looking at how we can reclaim the wonder of smallness, the grandeur of a simple life, the contentment found in the margin moments.
Elizabeth Gilbert once shared this story:
“The great mythologist, Joseph Campbell, once said: Here’s how humans make something sacred: You draw a circle around it and you say everything inside this circle is holy. It’s sacred because you said so. That is called a boundary, and a boundary is not a wall. A boundary is not something that you hide behind. A boundary is a golden circle that you draw around the things that matter to you, and you say everything inside this circle is sacred… You get to decide what is sacred. The sacred thing inside the circle can be your time, your creativity, your loved ones, your privacy, your recovery, your values, your mental health, your activism, your joy, your very heart and soul. You yourself can stand at the center of a sacred circle that you drew around YOUR VERY OWN BEING, and say, 'Everything inside this circle is holy.' Not because you think you’re better than anyone else, but because you have humbly accepted stewardship over the divine and mysterious gift of the universe that is YOU.”
What will you draw circles around in 2024?
I was only taught to believe that:
“My God is so big, so strong, and so mighty, there’s nothing my God cannot do.”
In my pre-deconstruction journey, God was always so big—sucking the air out of the room, taking all the attention, all the eyes and ears, all the love, all the glory. God was so big that my smallness felt like a shame, a blight on my humanity. God was so big; I felt God could never be on my level.
These days, I’m rediscovering the smallness of divinity, and I changed that little tune to say:
My God is so small, so intimate, and so close; there’s nowhere my God cannot be.
What’s saving my life right now is its smallness. The relief of not waiting for a miracle because I already am one. I love this little life; I’m savoring it, sharing it when I can, but more importantly, living it as if every moment is big, even when it isn’t because when you think about it, every second we get is a wonder, and I never want to forget that.
Join me in the App? It will be worth it. It might seem like a small thing, creating a moment for yourself to find some ground each day through things like ready this material, but it’s affect is far from small.
See you in the App,
Liz Milani xo
Instagram: @thepracticeco
From this week’s series titled "Grounded Movement" with a subscription in the App. Hope to see you there.
