Stretched

"(of something soft or elastic) be made or be capable of being made longer or wider without tearing or breaking."

Recently I've been wondering how we can do everything. After my thoughts on being radical, I was trying to establish my top priorities to be radical about, and here's a bit of a breakdown: 

Radical family relationships & radical friendships in London and across the UK and Europe & social justice down the street and across the globe & radical behaviour towards equality & radical Christianity in my day to day & radical love all the time towards everyone. 

(I am aware that a list of terms separated by '&' isn't strictly grammatically correct, but I'm emphasising a point here, and so the rules have been bent a little...) 

I think I feel a little stretched. 

There's that analogy about an elastic band and how we shouldn't let ourselves be stretched too far. There's another about malleable plastic and how we shouldn't let ourselves be taken out of shape. That's why I've reflected on the definition above. Something soft or elastic. Without tearing or breaking.

As humans, we tend to stretch ourselves too far. Emotionally, physically, or (like me) with the busy in the day to day. I'm scared of saying no sometimes and I want to do everything. Why? Because I want to be radical and surely radical is about doing everything? 

...Not exactly.

Because we are, for want of a more flattering terminology, soft or elastic. As humans we are soft and malleable - we can be shaped and changed by what's around us. Which is amazing because we can develop those passions I wrote about last week. But too much shaping and we become distorted. Again, we're elastic and flexible - we can choose and decide what to strive towards. But too much change and choosing and we can lose a sense of what we're about. And we snap.

I think I'm learning it's important to be aware of our limits. To sit somewhere in between comfortable and painful. But most importantly - not to stretch ourselves too far. We are capable of being made longer and wider and it's great that we can develop ourselves. But we need to remember that we're not superheroes. 

Slow and steady wins the race. Not that I'm competitive (really), but our average lives as humans last a while. We can start somewhere and move on to another. We can begin and develop and slowly take up something else. I think being radical has a lot to do with being focused on particulars; not trying to do too much at once; remaining healthy in the process.

Challenge.