“Egregious”
I like this word today. I like it a lot.

I woke up this morning thinking about all of the amazing opportunities we humans are given every single day to do right, be kind, offer joy, be inclusive, open our hearts up really really wide, connect with one another and be lovingly curious. The truth is, I’ve been washing myself in this particular psychic laundry setting a lot lately. I deliberately steer toward more thought-provoking and positive information and stories and – it’s no secret that I like creative thinking, the arts and a dash of humor. It’s fairly easy to filter out negativity when picking and choosing what to pay attention to on the internet, but when shitty stuff happens in reality it’s not quite as easy to block or delete. In my “opportunities of life” laundry setting, there’s a spin cycle that challenges me to let go, let go, let go – mainly of my naive expectation that people who act selfishly will miraculously wake up and chose love over fear.

The quote on the martha phelps studio facebook page today reads: “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” (T.S. Eliot) Those daily quotes, by the way, are usually queued up weeks in advance so when they post they’re a surprise for me too. So in light of how I’ve been pondering this morning, I really appreciate Eliot’s wisdom. I want to risk going too far. I want even… to be egregious. This word is a noun, adverb and adjective which archaically was defined as “Remarkably good,” yet now is also defined as “Outstandingly bad; shocking.” I suppose in order for anyone to truly be an egregious risk taker, they need to be prepared to be experienced by others as both wonderful and a big fat pain in the ass. In my opinion, it would be far better to make mistakes and cross the occasional line in pursuit of love and joy, than selfishly and fearfully hold back – not only from ourselves but from those around us, our friends – families – communities.

I want to find out how far this heart will carry me. How far will yours go?