I have two bowls at home. They are pictured here with their respective contents. The one on the left is places I’m going. The one on the right is places I’ve been (and old boarding passes I hang on to in order to make sure my frequent flier awards are updated). Life is between the bowls.
I can’t live out of either bowl because neither is what’s happening in my life right now. Ironically, when I’m away I can’t even see the bowls. I know they’ll be there, and that space between, when I return.
Some people like to pile up one bowl or the other, sometimes both. They love to have a full blue bowl with a pile of trips planned and waiting. Excitement over what’s to come. I admit to enjoying the planning aspect of any trip, but I don’t long for that bowl.
Some relish the clear bowl, life gone by. They pour over the old receipts and boarding passes, reliving adventures they survived, endured or grew through. Each glace at a city name on a ticket brings a smile and a sigh. Wishing for that which is past.
I try to live between the two. Too much time spent in the blue bowl distracts from the fact that my garden needs weeding. Too much time in the clear bowl means I’m not paying attention to how my daughter is doing in school today. Too much time in either bowl leads to only one thing in my mind; more time in the bowls. They start to become the only reason for life, wanting one or the other. Wanting to move tickets from the blue to the clear. Wanting to find some experience that will amaze and astound. Something beyond the humdrum.
But the humdrum, the space between, is where life is lived for most of us. I should have put a bowl between the two and filled it with cereal. Because that is what really sustains me. Food and love and a couple of dogs that need grooming and daily tasks and all that stuff we call humdrum. Or maybe, better still as I reach for the perfect metaphor, life is the space around the bowls. It’s as bigger than a house and bigger than the lawn outside (that needs mowing today). It’s bigger than the neighborhood with people I still need to meet and say, “Hello!” to.
Life is so much grander than either bowl. And life outside of those bowls has far more variety and excitement than either bowl can contain.
Sometimes bowls are needed to help hold the things we need to keep safe (like airline tickets). But don’t forget; they are small containers compared to the life going on around you every day.
