Everyone Wants to Be a Saint, Until Life Asks Them to Create
There is a moment that comes quietly in most lives, usually after we have tried hard for too long, when we begin to imagine leaving everything behind. We do not always say it aloud because it sounds dramatic, ungrateful, or irresponsible, but somewhere inside us there is a longing to walk away from the noise—away from the pressure to earn, achieve, explain, perform, provide, and become. We imagine silence. We imagine the mountains. We imagine a life with fewer possessions, fewer obligations, fewer people asking something of us. We imagine becoming a saint. But perhaps what we are really asking for is not renunciation. Perhaps we are asking for rest. Because life, as we are living it, can become exhausting. The world tells us to want more, and then quietly makes us feel ashamed when we do. It teaches us to work hard, but often makes us believe that our worth depends on how visible, productive, wealthy, admired, or needed we are. We begin to carry ambition like a burden, and then one day...