I’m thinking today about the little things and the big things.
I realized this morning how some little things are big things. Especially now.
Last December I received an incredible gift on my 50th birthday. A list of dozens of challenges that I was to complete, submitted by friends from around the world. Some of them funny, some of them truly challenging. All of them designed to take me to new places, sometimes with people who matter to me.
I had begun rising to some of these challenges by the time March 15th rolled around, but when Covid-19 became real, I put it aside. I haven’t looked at the list since. I just couldn’t. I think there is something too painful about moving back in time to a moment when the challenges were all possible, and when it didn’t seem frivolous to care about a to-do list of personal goals. When I did catch sight of it next to my desk, I looked away.
However, one friend who submitted to the list contacted me several times during the pandemic to essentially say: “how are we going to make this challenge happen?” They kept updating the plan, presenting possible solutions, looking into ways to make the challenge safe in the new era we are living in. I resisted answering for weeks. I didn’t know why, exactly, but I just didn’t want to think about it. I couldn’t.
This morning I woke up thinking about that friend, and what an important gift they were giving me. One that I need to be willing to accept.
So, I contacted them, and I let them know that one way or another, we would address the challenge together.
It’s hard to describe how incredibly important this little thing is. It’s not the challenge itself. That’s beside the point. It’s the fact that a friend would take time amidst so much turmoil to even think about me and the fact that I haven’t been able to do this little thing. That, as the world is throwing challenge after challenge at us, the little things between us still have huge meaning, and help us put one foot in front of the other.
So thanks, Dustin Harvey. I’m gonna learn how to drive a race car. And you’re going to teach me.
I learned something today. And that is an indescribably big thing.