In David Whyte’s book Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words, he describes the word ‘close’ in part, “Close is what we almost always are: close to happiness, close to another, close to leaving, close to tears, close to God, close to losing faith, close to being done, close to saying something or close to success, and even, with the greatest sense of satisfaction, close to giving the whole thing up. Our human essence lies not in arrival, but in being almost there: we are creatures who are on the way, our journey a series of impending anticipated arrivals. We live by unconsciously measuring the inverse distances of our proximity: an intimacy calibrated by the vulnerability we feel in giving up our sense of separation.”
What are we close to in our own lives? And what is holding us back from the next step? Are we happy where we are? Are we enjoying the journey to our ‘set’ destination or are we living one lane over from where we wish we were driving? So close yet so far.
What habits might we lose or gain to keep moving forward? Author James Clear writes in Atomic Habits, “As the psychologist Carl Jung said, ‘Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.'” Clear recommends writing down distinct goals as to what you will do, where, and for how long if you decide to build a habit. And that new habit may be just the thing to move you from being close to being there. If, indeed, that is where you want to go.