Digging In

by Loretta Nyhan

“Pick a few things you don’t want to let slide, and let the rest sort itself out,” he said gently after one particularly rough day. “When someone leaves this world, everything else gets jostled because of the empty space. You’re gonna land in the wrong spot for a while. Sooner or later, you’ll find where you fit again.”

“I want to know what the other kind of change is. The kind that isn’t slow.” Tears burned at my eyes, hot and quick. “It’s the kind that pulls you by the hair. The unexpected jolt. It’s merciless, and it doesn’t allow you to change cell by cell, cushioning the blow with time. It smacks you into a new reality. It forces you to examine things you’d rather leave under a rock.”

Free yourself from the pressure of success, and you’ll free yourself of the oppressiveness of failure.

“When you give something meaning, it’s worth remembering. We filter out the stuff that doesn’t touch our heart.”