I was listening to Sharon Salzberg, best-selling author and world-renowned Buddhist meditation teacher, on The Tim Ferriss Show. She said something profound. She said, “Do the good that’s in front of you, even if it feels very small.”
Sometimes life can feel overwhelming. Out of control. We have so many balls up in the air that our arms can’t possibly keep juggling. But we are in such a frenzy that we keep going until something drops. The ball or us.
Sharon also mentioned a quote by Rainer Maria Rilke in Letters to a Young Poet. Rilke says, “…if a sadness rises in front of you, larger than any you have ever seen; if an anxiety, like light and cloud-shadows, moves over your hands and over everything you do. You must realize that something is happening to you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand and will not let you fall.”
Life has not forgotten you. Even when it seems like that sometimes. We may feel like we’re in a hole with no way to climb out. Staring up at the sky, wondering how the clouds keep floating by when we’re in chaos and mayhem and everything seems to be falling apart.
But life has not forgotten you. Keep getting up. Keep trying. Keep taking little steps. And as Sharon said, do the good that’s in front of you. No matter how small.
Those good deeds will set you free and allow you to continue on the journey of a lifetime.