An analogy.
A drop of water doesn’t weigh much.
It might startle you if a drop of water landed unexpectedly on your bare skin but it wouldn’t change the course of your day.
A tiny drop of water sitting on a leaf might glisten attractively in the sunlight. A thing of beauty.
A drop of water trickling down a window takes you back to night time car rides as a child.
A tiny drop of water when writing an important letter could smudge a word and ruin the look of the whole thing.
A well-timed drop of rain on non-waterproof mascara could necessitate reapplication of the whole ‘look’.
A tree with hundreds of leaves and blooms can hold a thousand drops of water.
If you looked at a tree on a sunny afternoon after a rainy morning, would you know there were a thousand drops of water resting there?
How much does a thousand drops weigh? I bet it’s a lot.
If you shook that tree and a thousand drops of water fell to the ground would the branches sigh with relief? Would the plants and the insects below rejoice?
Formulate life’s minor irritations as tiny drops of water, and you, the tree. How much are you carrying that isn’t really visible? How much does it weigh?
What would happen if someone shook your branches?
(To be clear, I’m not talking about dropping everything, life is too busy and complex for that. The drops of water are your response to the irritations. The stress of the carrying. Shake it off. Everything is still there to deal with, but the body is a little looser.)
