Powerful

As I shredded and recycled bags upon bags of paper that were cluttering my space, and my life, I felt a little giddy. While the process wasn't actually making a substantial difference, it felt good to shred. It felt good to remove. It felt good to say "I can live without this." It didn't simply feel good. It felt powerful.

There are days when it feels as though we have little power--little power over the jobs we do and how we do them, little power over how the people around us will get along, little power over what comes into our space and what we can keep out. We react to what's in front of us, but we can't always control how it gets there.

As I shredded papers today, knowing that the resulting freed up space would barely be visible, I realized that it was not so much the space I was seeking (though I suppose we city dwellers are always seeking space). Rather, it was the feeling of being powerful in my space, the feeling of having control over my choices, and the realization that I didn't (at least not every moment) have to settle for the status quo.

Finding our own power each day is as simple as speaking up for what we want, or what we think is right. Finding our own power is striving for more while working with what is there. Finding our own power is shredding and saying goodbye to. And it is digging deep enough to find what is lost and to figure out how to use it.

We don't need to yell or to be in charge to be powerful. Every day, we can find simple ways to use the power we possess. Sometimes the result is a little less clutter. And sometimes, if we're lucky, we walk away with a strength we never knew we had.