A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

If I stand only here and never move

I never learn what other views exist.

What other vistas I have not seen

staring, as I have been,

in one direction.

Maybe I will choose this same dream.

Maybe I will return to this same spot

and be graced by things I never noticed

beneath my own feet.

But, I tell you this one thing

I cannot decide to return to this spot

if I do not know it is the one for me.

If I never seek another viewpoint,

If I am not educated by places and things I never knew, I didn’t know.

How can I truly ever appreciate that which I have taken for granted, if I do not learn about that which exists outside my gaze?

How can I honor who I am, if I do not yet know who else I can be?

I am limited by my entitlement and my privilege.

I am enclosed by my lack of knowing, that I lack the knowing.

Let me walk forward and be educated.

Let me stumble, fall, and rise by my own power.

Let me see, with my own eyes, that I am less than I think I am, and more than I realized I could be.

Let me become.

Pain is not pain if it makes you evolve.

Pain that makes you grow is a blessing in determined clothing.