Minutia
“…minute or minor detail.” It is a tricky balancing act to keep one’s focus on the big picture and tend to detail at the same time.
‘Not seeing the forest for the trees’ is a saying that reflects how easy it is to get lost in the minutia.
Betrand Malinowski coined the phrase, ‘…the imponderabilia of daily living.’ It is one of my favorite descriptions of the minutia of day-to-day life.
“Knowledge of the self is the mother of all knowledge. So it is incumbent on me to know my self, to know it completely, to know its minutia, its characteristics, its subtleties, and its very atoms.” ~Khalil Gibran
I am not certain that we can completely know ourselves. But I do believe that the more I know my self the greater is my authenticity, freedom from worry and inner peace.
This quote from Deepak Chopra really got my attention.
“A risk-free life is far from being a healthy life. To begin with, the very word ‘risk’ implies worry, and people who worry about every bite of food, sip of water, the air they breathe, the gym sessions they have missed, and the minutia of vitamin doses are not sending positive signals to their cells. A stressful day sends constant negative messaging to the feedback loop and popping a vitamin pill or choosing wheat bread instead of white bread does close to zero to change that.”
Chopra’s use of food, water, air, vitamins and exercise exemplifies getting lost in the minutia of managing our health, our stress. These elements are essential for our physical survival, literally.
To have a healthy life demands cultivating a belief system that enriches our faith and promotes our capacity to trust the process. We need them both.
Surrendering ourselves to the care of the Divine Energy of Love is taking a profound risk.
This week I ask, ‘Are you a risk-taker?’
