The Little Inspirational Image Quote
How a forgotten table in an Ohio camp cabin basement taught me a lesson about peace.
It’s July of 2022. I’m getting the super-secret exclusive tour of the basement of the staff cabin at Ohio FFA Camp Muskingum. The narrow hallway smells just musty enough to make no mistake it’s a basement, but the walls are bright, with colorful brush strokes of the past Ohio FFA State Officer Teams as they sought to immortalize their year of service in a conglomeration of murals. The group of us have to go single-file down one stretch of the hallway, as the distinct “old chipboard table stacked with random things no one knows what to do with but doesn’t want to throw away” took over half the space.
I’m not sure who put a little inspirational image quote on the corner of the table, but it caught my eye. On a small piece of paper, I read these words:
Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you’ll be able to see further.
[Thomas Carlyle]
I was in a season of my life where I worried far too much about the next three seasons, allowing future stress to take away from present joy. If I’m honest with myself, most seasons of my life are like this. Regardless, that quote felt like it was written for me. I pointed it out to my friend Chyann who was giving me the tour, took a picture of it, and we moved on. Still, the words were swirling in my head.
It’s September of 2022. I’m getting back to the apartment after a long, exhausting day of preparation for the National FFA Convention, where my teammates and I would host three days of sessions and give our final farewell addresses to the organization. The excitement of convention was looming, but so was the uncertainty of what would come next. Yes, I’d go back to school in the spring semester, but what if I wouldn’t be able to reconnect with my classmates? What if I couldn’t find an internship I enjoyed? What if I couldn’t find who I was again after the FFA?
Glancing through the mail on the kitchen counter, I saw a small card from Chyann, my Ohio FFA camp friend. As I pulled the card from the envelope, out fell a little inspirational image quote. THE quote, in fact. In her note, Chyann wrote about her gratitude for our friendship and how she felt called to send me that quote.
Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you’ll be able to see further.
[Thomas Carlyle]
God bless you, Chyann. It was just what I needed, again. Because, you see, it’s not an easy thing to do sometimes: live in the present without fear of the future. But I believe we owe it to ourselves and those around us to work on it.
I have three key takeaways from this little inspirational image quote:
Trying to see further than we’re able does not bring us peace. When you’re driving in the fog, it’s pointless to try to see the other side of it. The effective strategy is to focus intently on the little that you can see. As you move forward, you see the little bit that’s next. I think the same is true for our lives: we can’t know what will happen far out from today, but we can focus intently on today.
Living aimlessly does not bring us peace, either. Just because we may not be able to see fifteen years in advance doesn’t mean we shouldn’t set ourselves on a course based on our values, our strengths, and whatever other priorities are important to us. I also think we can “see” certain aspects of our lives further out than others. For example, if we choose to always have integrity, we don’t have to wait to see what our circumstances are in fifteen years to know if we can live with integrity. Trying to see exactly what job we’ll have in fifteen years, down to the cubicle location and teammates, is less realistic. Set an aim, and make decisions in the present which lead to that aim.
It’s okay to learn an important lesson more than once. I don’t know about y’all, but I put so much pressure on myself to get things right the first time. If I have to be reminded a second time, I feel like I’ve failed. But here’s the tea: a mentor of mine recently told me that learning a lesson over and over again probably means it’s an important lesson, not necessarily that we’ve failed to understand it. This lesson, setting an aim yet living it out one step at a time, is one I need over and over again. I suppose that means it’s important.
Life is overwhelming when we try to live it all at once, further than we can see. So, establish some best practices: know who you are and know the type of person you want to be, but don’t get lost in the details of what you can’t see… yet. Let’s live in what’s already given to us: what we can see. We’ll end up in the places we can’t see soon enough. And then, you know what? We’ll see them, too.
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