Last month, someone asked about my ten-year plan. It seems ominous to look ten years out and create measurable goals. Stabbing at something beyond a vision, I was getting close — until last week.
Last week, at the Grand Canyon’s bottom, holding 1.84 billion year old rocks, I uttered, “There goes my ten-year plan.” These rocks have survived beyond any history I understand.
The Grand Canyon’s overwhelming vastness and age made me realize how insignificant one lifespan can be. My ten-year plan has little relevance when juxtaposed against the 1.84 billion years of those rocks.
Can anyone assign value to our short time on earth? We all will come and go before any significant change in the canyon will occur. Alone, our actions cannot make lasting effect there.
Wading the Colorado River, I watched the water surge fast and cold over huge boulders. This river had molded those boulders for centuries. Yet it rippled around me, creating a new course. That changed course revealed that we can affect those around us if we choose to proceed like a river’s current. Being fluid, we can carve out others’ beauty.
Emerging from the canyon, I decided my ten-year plan could not be solid as a rock. Rather, one must move with the current to mold the courses of those nearby.
It comes down to this: Is it better to be the rock or the river?
My plan is to flow with the river! What’s yours?
I’m Elsa Glover, and that’s my perspective.
