What Will Your Part Be?

January 7, 2021January 6, 2021 / scbilder / Leave a comment

“All we can do is play our parts and keep each other company.” – Cissy, Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg

It’s hard to remember sometimes that we all have an important part to play, that everything happens for a reason even when we can’t fathom what that reason is. Everyone is cooped up these days and feelings are easily muddled. There’s something deeply unsatisfying about waking up, going to work and eventually signing off for the day all within the confines of the same three rooms without stepping so much as a toe outside to participate in the world. And on those rare occasions when we are graced with plans which require us to interact with society, coming home doesn’t feel half as good when we know there’s only a dark, empty living room waiting for us when we get there.

I believe that life is all about the people in it. It’s why I threw myself into the role of host, planner and general group mom among my fellow new hires when I moved to Indiana. Reaching out to people I didn’t know well and inviting them to an afternoon with silly, shy, little me was and often still is something that I find decidedly uncomfortable but I was determined to make friends in a place where I had very few acquaintances. Eventually, after months of practice, it did get easier.

Of course, now people are quiet, hunkered down in their homes while they wait for promises of safety from the virus. Everyone is skittish of getting too close while catching up over a bite at the local burger joint. Still, I’m itching for my life to return to the whirlwind pace of 2019 when the walls of my apartment felt like home base for unending possibilities instead of the boundaries to a very small world.

At some point we’ve all felt small. We’re only human after all. But maybe simply making it through our bad moments will be the consolation that someone else needs to get through theirs. We’re social creatures, hardwired with a desire for steady love and friendship. It’s never too late to call up a friend, even one you haven’t spoken to in six months. We are all here for a reason. What will your part be?

Nothing To Say

December 2, 2020December 1, 2020 / scbilder / Leave a comment

What to write when you have nothing to say? Anyone who has ever attempted to commit to a writing goal can attest to grappling with this dilemma. Despite meticulously laid plans and the best of intentions, some days you just come up blank. It feels as if you can do nothing but stare at that blinking cursor in the upper right corner of the screen. A frustratingly large amount of the time, you wish it would simply move on its own.

However, every writing guru also knows that the tiny, winking black line at the top of the page is propelled by one thing, your voice. It is the most obedient worker, tap dancing across the white stage only when expressly commanded by your vigorous typing. It’s the perfect dancer but you must provide the choreography.

POTD: The Road Goes Ever On

August 14, 2020August 14, 2020 / scbilder / Leave a comment

With all the pandemic safety measures people are growing restless, cooped up after the long months of minimizing social contact. Most of us are either getting too much family time or not enough and it’s beginning to show. We are social creatures after all, craving variety in our communication and in the company we keep. It’s times like these that people tend to comfort one another by using phrases like “keep calm and carry on” and “chin up.” Some days the best you can do is keep going. Whenever I have one of those days I recall Bilbo Baggins’ soft humming tune as he set out for the last time from Bag End and the Shire.

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
– JRR Tolkien