The Thread Makes a Blanket

“Weaving at the Loom” Photo by Alexandra Marcu (detail)

One thing most of us try not to think about is how small we are. And the more we avoid the thought the more we feel big and significant.

Occasionally we visit a big place like

  • the foot of a rock so big we feel like an ant
  • or a cathedral which is designed to make us remember we are small
  • or the ocean stretching beyond the horizon

and our sense of proportion begins to return.

Sometimes we forget the proportion we are part of and raise our sense of importance until it oppresses us with the obligation to be more than we can be.

But we are both important and small. And it is enough.

The little that we are, the little that we can do, is part of the greatness of the universe. We are contributing to the expansion of all things and we each, as particles of it, are needed like each thread of a great blanket.

We can still marvel at the astounding complexity of our little selves, for we are more than the threads woven in the blanket. We can honor the human being’s capacity to think and feel, imagine and make, cooperate and unite, in awesome array of subtleties. And remember that each of us is a processor at the edge of the universe.

The troubles and turmoil that we risk every day are akin to the explosions and collisions going on in the formation of stars. We take the abuse and discomfort, the exhaustion and pressure, and choose whether to keep it to ourselves or offer it up to the Highest Weaver. We hold it to ourselves and disintegrate or contribute it and expand without knowing its full significance. For we are made to be co-creators with the Power that makes all things too large and too small to comprehend.

We don’t have to comprehend it, but we can feel at home as a member of it and do our best at what little we can do, trusting that it will all be worked together for good when offered — because we love our little selves and the Greater Body we are part of.