The Weight of Enough

We are taught to measure a life by what it accumulates. We stack our days like firewood, hoping the pile will be high enough to ward off the coming frost. But the cold is not kept away by the size of the stack. It is kept away by the warmth of the hearth, however small. There is a specific, quiet dignity in the hands that hold only what is necessary. To need nothing more is a form of freedom that the heavy-handed can never understand. It is the stillness of a lake before the wind arrives, or the way a single candle holds back the entire weight of the night. We spend our lives reaching for the horizon, forgetting that the ground beneath our feet is already enough. What remains when the hunger for more finally goes quiet?

Shahnaz Parvin has taken this beautiful image titled I Am Happy with What I Have Got. It reminds me that the smallest harvest can be the heaviest to carry. Does it remind you of the things you have stopped chasing?