I remember the first time I saw the pictures of the earth taken from outer space, what a magical vision. For a planet that seemed so large the picture made it look so small; I guess that’s a lesson in perspective. As we stand on this planet, in our bodies the illness experience knocks us off our pedestal of feeling big and cuts us down to size. It’s not a punishment, or a lesson in reality, but an understanding of our place in the world.
The question “what’s the size of your world?” is important because it’s not uncommon following an illness diagnosis for our worlds to shrink and the unfortunately it’s repopulated with a medical community we had no interest in knowing. Maybe our world has to increase it’s size like a taffy pull, just keep tugging at the edges and stretching it till it becomes smoothe and shiny. This would happen by friends, neighbors and co-workers engaging you. Maybe we can increase the size of our worlds the way they do with angioplasty…insert a balloon into the artery and then slowly fill the balloon with air increasing it’s size allowing for increased blood flow. Perhaps we can increase the size of our worlds by invitation, making specific requests of people.
It’s interesting that President Obama asked the country to engage in acts of service. Can you think of any greater act of service than maintaining our relationships to their full capacity? Service is not only something we do for those we don’t know. Service is about extending a hand to anyone who could use a bit more support and encouragement.
How will you increase the size of your world? Make a list of five things you can do and then select one that you can do today. I’d love to hear what you’ve chosen and the actions you’ve taken to increase the size of your world.
Pilgrim Pathway/Surviving Strong 