Today marks the half-way point in my self-declared Month of Gratitude and Inspiration. And being the half-occasion that it is had me contemplating something all day that I don’t think is always easy to get a hold of…and that is the beauty and inspiration of the incomplete.
Not to be confused with the procrastinated, with the neglected, or with the lazy. That’s not at at all what this is. Where I often find great inspiration is in the “in-between” moments and scenarios. Like that feeling you get when your favorite song comes on, and you’re really aware that you’re enjoying it, and that it’s only half-way through; or the realization that you’re watching a movie that is much better than you thought it’d be, and you’re only an hour into it; or when you wake up and just feel and know that you’re in your zone, and that although the day may have just begun, you already know there’s nothing you can’t handle that day.
It’s that place before the resolution, before the ending, and before you’re sure how it will all turn out, but are aware of how good it is right now. It’s the kind of place that is sometimes hard to appreciate in such a results-oriented world. It’s the place that comes when the ball is in the air, fired toward the catcher’s mitt, but is not yet a ball or a strike, and it’s the football sailing on its long, hail-mary arc toward the end zone, but before any catch is made or missed. I love the places of “doing” almost more than the answers of “results”: dinner while it’s cooking, the studying before the exam, the practicing before the recital, the wrapping of the present, the writing of the letter, day #15 out of 30.
What’s even harder to explain is that I find that same value in things that are sometimes difficult, unpleasent, and downright negative. Something like one might experience in a failed or failing relationship, when one is often left with more questions than answers – more loose ends than understandings. To me, these loose ends, these unanswered questions are just as important as any answer could be. This is because without the questions, no answers could even be found. Without the loose ends, there would be no impetus to seek new ways of tying them up in the future. It also encourages one to divest themselves of the notion that fairness or justice are things which should automatically happen by default, and instead teaches one to invest themselves in the truth that values of fairness and justice require great, active, and daily cultivation if they are ever to be reified.
This is not to celebrate suffering, not to celebrate failure. But is IS to celebrate that these things usually have powerful value. They have transformative influence, and if harnessed and acknowledged with eyes wide open, then the “not knowing” and the “incomplete” can encourage a kinetic and dynamic process that is a tribute unto itself. A tribute that engenders an abiding inspiration from the process of things done as much as from the event of their completion; inspiration from the full awareness of the “in-between” moments, of the “half-way” points, and the beauty of the unfinished journey.
From Left to Write 