I pay attention to what people are watching around the hospital. Nearly every patient has their own TV. There are the tiny TV’s we keep in our pockets- those smart phones that we can’t seem to leave alone. So often, the content being consumed is political or pseudo-cultural. Sometimes I wonder if the new national sport is divisiveness. But for a moment this week, everyone was watching the same thing. And it was beautiful.
For a lovely, peaceful moment, we have been watching the Paris Olympics. And they are sublime.
Gymnasts who fly like angels. Swimmers who move like great white sharks. Runners who blaze like a flame. It’s been astonishing to watch these humans achieve feats that defy gravity and imagination. Watching the Olympics has reminded me that we are one people who aspire for magnificence, and a few of us achieve it; For the rest of us, it brings pleasure and inspiration to watch those who do.
Olympians are cut from a different cloth than the rest of us, with their dedication, commitment, and single-mindedness. But they are made of the same stuff that we are. Each of us has gifts that can be nurtured and developed beyond what anyone else thought we could do.
What would the world be like if each of us put time, care, and commitment into the gifts of our spirits? Imagine.
Let us lean in the universal thrill of watching what the dedicated few are able to master: the space and movement and intellect of the perfect performance. Let us rejoice knowing that we are from the same family as these elite athletes- the human family. Let each of us feel that we too can master our moment, whatever that is for us.
For the Olympics-watchers, may each of us have a spark of a vision for what we can achieve, however old we are, whatever challenges we face. The Divine created us to realize our potential. It is our responsibility to work with what we have to manifest it.
Let the watchers be inspired to become the doers. Let us nail the productive meeting, bake the perfect cake, complete flawless patient care, or solve an unsolvable budget problem. Our diversity is our gift as a species, and our abilities are unendingly creative. When we open ourselves to the possibilities of our existences, then there is no such thing as defeat- only progress.
Wherever we are in our lives, there are opportunities to realize full potential and experience completeness. Watching Olympians realize a state of sublimity reminds us that we are capable of so much more than we think we are.
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