Too Big, and Too Small

Do you ever have that feeling that you can’t reconcile what’s going on ‘out there’, with what’s going on ‘in here’? This morning I was reading this, and its attendant comments. What a mess. Is it any wonder that people my age feel a certain apathy born of frustration? Meanwhile, on the other side, people need help.
All that big, difficult stuff, and no clear answers.

And yet, here, in the process of being me, of being human, I get absorbed in the close-up stuff, all the ins and outs and stresses of my particular circumstances. How to stop my 7 year old from arguing with EVERYTHING I SAY, what work will look like in a few weeks, how we will all adjust to the new (surprise) puppy arriving on sunday, how to care for extended family when they are in a rough place, how long before edmund’s bad haircut grows in …. all of these, contrasted against the magnitude of hunger, disease, poverty, and oppression, seem embarrassing to even have mentioned.
And yet.
And yet, they are all things that need making sense of. they are things that vex and complicate, require action and response, but they also cloud up my brain, making it difficult for me to see those other larger issues, let alone have a sensitive response to them.
So, how do you reconcile the big and small? How do you stay engaged with the backdrop of the larger world, while attending to the small things that make up your particular universe?

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