Two to Three Feet Ahead

One of my favorite writers, Anne Lamott, quoted another famous writer in her must-read-if-you-like-writing (or reading, or life for that matter) book, Bird by Bird.

“E.L. Doctorow once said that ‘Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.’ You don’t have to see where you’re going, you don’t have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you. This is right up there with the best advice on writing, or life, I have ever heard.”

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I think about this quote a great deal.

Not just in the writing sense, but in every part of my life where I’m working and wrestling for clarity.

Building a business.

Loving a family.

Growing myself.

Exploring the Divine.

Choosing where I place my focus and attention.

Writing words.

I get hung up sometimes wanting to see the full path. To understand the entire terrain. Straining my eyes to look out further than is realistic, or even required.

And then, eventually, this quote comes to the surface.

Two or three feet ahead.

The next clear, sturdy step.

Trusting the headlights will illuminate the one beyond that.

Again and again and again.

As I strike a match each morning to begin my interior work, I say a phrase out loud, “Your word, Lord, is a lamp unto my feet. And a light unto my path.”

Moving my focus back to the present moment, grounding me in what I can see clearly right now.

And trusting that clarity will keep showing up, and burning brighter and brighter as I go.

You don’t have to see clearly forever into the future to have clarity today.