You Can't See The Forest For The Trees

When I was little, my parents once said that to me. I thought it was so hilarious because I really didn't understand what it meant, and so naturally it sounded like nonsense. They tried to explain it at the time, but I think I just laughed hysterically and didn't listen. Since then, it's become probably one of my favorite and most underused expressions. In case you haven't heard it much, it means that you get so caught up in looking at the stupid details of the trees without seeing the bigger picture of a beautiful forest right in front of you.

I think part of the reason I love this expression so much is that it comes with a built-in life lesson. It's so easy to look at the tree right in front of you and get super focused on the knot and the scratch and trying to figure out which tree belongs next to it, but in doing so you miss the bigger picture. And you can walk your way through the forest worrying about every little detail and realize that you've missed the whole forest. A wonderful metaphor for life, that I feel I can't hear enough of. I need a lot of reminding to make sure I'm enjoying life as a whole instead of worrying about where I'm at and where I should be at. And that doesn't really help to answer any of my millions of questions, but it does make me smile. And that's not too bad. 

Anyway, I was thinking about that the other day and wanted to share. It's just one of those things that strikes me a certain way I guess. I find it poetic. 

So right now it's Sukkot! And while it is stressful having to miss work and make it up, I think I'm in the minority of my friends who could have as many days off as God wants me to have and I'll enjoy every minute. I hope the same will be true next week when I'm at Jen and Eric for the last days. I love the holidays. I love spending three days sitting at home reading, seeing family friends, and sleeping. What could be bad? Most people get bored but I just don't seem to. Nothing new there. Right now it's Chol Hamoed- which literally translates to "The weekday of the the holiday"- basically the days in between the non-electricity days (Yom Tov). The term Chol Hamoed applies to the middle days of Pesach as well. Technically we are still supposed to be eating meals in the Sukkah (though I don't really during the week) and all of the special prayers for this holiday are still said during these days, so I'm trying to at least keep it in mind that it's a holiday because forgetting because of work is depressing. 

Last night, I saw my high school friend group and they hadn't heard about the trip/one of them didn't remember about it at all, so it was nice to be able to start from scratch, and talk about it all over again. I don't get tired of reliving it. Also this girl I once interned with is on a crazy Europe trip right now, and I'm going nuts for her photos. 

I get what you mean about never being able to replicate people's ability to be natural, like my boss. I've been trying pretty hard and my family was laughing at me listening to me talking on the phone in my 'Melissa voice', but it seems to be working okay. I've never felt so committed to the idea of "fake it 'til you make it." I am absolutely faking it. The part that I'm conflicted about is - Make it to what? 

On your note about feeling like you'd be happier or more fulfilled in a more creative field, I had a really interesting conversation with my friends last night. JJ is in her third year of med school- just done with the book stuff and just starting rotations- the meat of being a doctor you would think. But she feels lost and said she doesn't know what she's doing. Alison is in grad school for Art Therapy and is feeling, I guess, a little frustrated with her internship, which she thought would be work she would like but is not what she was hoping for. It's interesting because we are all in such different fields on such varying degrees of the 'Passion Scale,'  and we all seem to be in the same place: I'm doing what I think, on paper, I like. I don't like it right now, but I don't know what else is going on, so I'm just going to keep trying. 

You have told me about The Defining Decade by the way. I requested it from the library, but it came in at an inopportune time before the trip so I lost it. I should request it again. Also, I know I chose a different title for this post, but if I had gone for a line from yours it would have been this: The great thing is when someone can take what you're feeling and paraphrase it for you. Do you ever notice that when you see a line you wrote in the title, it makes it seem deeper and you find yourself thinking "I wrote that?" It's a cool feeling and- side note- makes me really think I need to not be so hard on my writing because maybe it'll seem brilliant or even okay upon revisiting.