permanent motion

"What is fundamentally important to you creates motion."

I heard that several years ago, and I remembered it because it didn't make a whole lot of sense. Lots of things create motion in my life simply because I worry that if I don't DO them, the lack of doing will ruin everything. They aren't what really matters to me.

But that's not what that statement means. Some things in life create violent motion that stops when the momentum dies. They don't push hard enough. Others -- the important ones that matter -- create permanent motion. Some people, professors maybe, push and you study for a test for six hours (and that seems really important at the time). Some people say one word that alters the choices you make for the next six years, who keep you coming back time and time again to the things they taught you without realizing it.

Some people were meant to shake you up for a while, few were meant to permanently and persistently knock you off your feet.

You can't always control situations in life, or who enters or exits it. Sometimes they make a huge positive or negative impact that you weren't expecting. Don't get fixated on the temporarily spectacular, thinking that it will last. Instead find those who will gently but unyieldingly push you in the right direction, challenge you quietly, whose very presence creates a desire to move forward and become more than you are.

Temporary impact goes a long way at this point in life. Everything feels so urgent and fundamentally life-altering. But it's a ripple effect...one event that creates temporary turbulence. Never confuse it for the waves, the subtle but powerful things that will keep you moving after the ripples are gone.