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In Conversation #008: When the Ground Does Not Hold
Some lives are built on ground that holds. Others are built while the ground is still moving.
We are taught to measure effort as though it exists on its own. Work harder. Do more. Push further. It sounds simple until you begin to notice that effort does not land the same way everywhere. In some places, it builds. In others, it disappears into the work of staying upright.
What sits beneath effort is rarely named. Yet it determines what effort can become.
We lived in the city for school. Summers, we went to the countryside, less than an hour away. In one, we had electricity. In the other, we had the moon, the river, and mangoes eaten warm from the tree. In one, things counted. In the other, things held. The distance was short. The difference was not.
We often describe outcomes as personal. Success. Failure. Discipline. Drive. Less often do we ask what kind of ground something was built on. The seed does not choose its ground.
Some floors absorb shock. Some require constant adjustment. Some begin to sink. When the floor does not hold, effort alone is not enough.
This is a point of recognition. Once we see the floor, we begin to see each other differently.
Most of us are seeds looking for ground that holds.
One thing worth carrying: If an ordinary life requires extraordinary effort, the floor does not hold
— Judithe
Notes written while a book is becoming.
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