Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.  Arthur  Shopenhauer

Arggghhh…driving the mail 6 days a week is too challenging.

I don’t mean that it’s a job I can’t do….nothing like that.

What I mean is that because I listen to motivational audio books, I hear things that challenge me.  I suppose that there’s a big difference.

It’s a big world out there.  It’s a big, small world out there.  Everything is accessible…and really, everything is attainable.  That is a large and crazy thought and fact to wrap my head around.

There isn’t a thing in the world that I can’t attain.

DAMN DARN IT!!!!!

What a dangerous and painful conclusion to arrive at.

I don’t want the responsibility of potential hanging over my head…it’s a lot easier to just go back to bed or watch another rerun of The Big Bang Theory.

We make our world so small.  We make our world small in a bad way.  It’s not a recognition that it’s a small and accessible world…it’s more a belief that the fence line is close and that’s as far as we can go.

I feed dogs on the route.  I carry a box of cheap big box store brand bones to give out to my dog customers along the way as I deliver the mail.

I have one house with a white german shepherd and a big chocolate lab that is early on the route.  These two dogs are crazy excited when I pull up to deliver at their address.  They both know that something good is coming…and that he is going to have a bone for them to gobble down.

I’ve noticed some days that the chocolate lab sticks close to the house…won’t come off the covered porch when I drive up…won’t come running out to get his bone.  I wondered about this…wondered if he was o.k…..and then I realized….

It was raining.   The crazy dog didn’t like to get out in the rain…so he wasn’t going to run out to get his bone.

The big white shepherd didn’t care…I think she’d jump through fire for an imitation milk bone.

But…the lab knew that wasn’t going to happen…he knows that rain means to stick close to home…and he doesn’t change the pattern even if it means missing out on a treat.

(I put a bone in his mailbox for him for later anyway).

I wonder how many times I put up some weird conditional excuse for not doing something that would have been exciting or rewarding?

(One of my daughter’s early phrases…sadly enough and all my fault….was “too ‘spensive”.  What the heck?  I should be ashamed of myself.)

Like I said earlier…it’s a big world out there.  But…I’m starting to figure out that it’s big in the potential for adventure and opportunity….but not big enough to make anything unattainable.

I rode around at Disneyland and heard that cliché’ over and over…but until I can start putting it into practice…until I start believing that “small world” doesn’t mean a world of limits, just an opportunity to explore and attain…I’ll be just another dog who won’t get off the porch when it’s raining.