How Long a Shadow?
How long a shadow cast at the end of the day?
How many grains of gravel change from light to gray?
We live our lives from dusk to dawn and walk our paths of sand.
Some with purpose, some without. Others simply stand.
It matters not where you go, but how true you are to soul.
The higher you can hold your head, the more that you are whole.
So make the choice to do your best, as you go along your way.
And think about the shadow cast upon your end of day.
~anand sahaja
Story:
Pondering the meaning of my life. Feeling like I have not accomplished all of the things I have set out to do.
Then I reflected on this time we helped a guy flyer the Director’s Guild in Hollywood to save the Cinerama Dome from being demolished. Doug wanted to save the building. I made up some flyers and my husband and I met him at the guild and put flyers in all of the windshields one Saturday afternoon during a screening. It was all in a day’s work of an historic architecture activist. Then a year or more later, someone handed me the Southwest Airlines In-Flight Magazine. There was a story about Doug and how he saved the Dome. He called me out personally by name as someone who had inspired him to keep fighting for preservation. It was a turning point in my consciousness.
I thought about that event that had not seemed that significant to myself, but had spurred another person and support their great action. How many times have you done some small favor for another. Keep doing them, because you never know where your sphere of influence may show up for the good of humanity.
It’s the butterfly effect.
Then I also thought about moving forward to accomplish goals and ambitions and being carrot driven. As I pondered this, I realized, it is less about the activity you engage in, but more about how high you can hold your head so to speak in terms of staying true to your moral compass. While accomplishments are important, it is the ability of a person to maintain their compass and be a beacon of nobility which I think has more effect on the planet than anything else.
P.S.
The image is me from Zuma Beach.