In Frederick Buechner’s Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons his Innkeeper puts it like this:
It is like being lost in a forest of a million trees, and each tree is a thing to be done.
Is there fresh linen on all the beds? Did the children put on their coats before they went out? Has the letter been written, the book read? Is there money enough left in the bank...
A million trees. A million things. Until finally we have eyes for nothing else, and whatever we see turns into a thing. The sparrow lying in the dust at your feet- just a thing to be kicked out of the way, not the mystery of death. The calling of children outside your window - just a distraction, an irrelevance, not life, not the wildest miracle of them all."
I don’t want to be too hard on him, because it happens to all of us. But it is also why “out the door” has become so important to my easily lost-in-the-forest soul. Those million tree things-to-do can overtake my perspective and crowd out what is truly important to me faster than I can put on my walking shoes. Even “take a walk” becomes just a thing to be done some days, and yet, somehow choosing to do it causes my perspective to shift ever so slightly.
I put down The List...
And that is the beginning.
Of discovery.
Of another adventure in going nowhere.
Of connection with the One who saw all that was made – small bits too –
and behold – see! –
it was very good. (Genesis 1:31)
So, out the door I go, out the door you go.
Slow down.
Look around.
Behold it all, behold the small.
Especially the small.
Tell me, what small and wonderful thing did you behold when you went out-the-door?
Me? Oh, just some dandelions...after rain.