Greatness knows not of size

When we try to express 'great' without using words, we tend to use our hands, to create an expansive arm movement, as if to encompass an outburst of whatever. We also tend to finish in a certain double-shake, as if implying gravity, a solid weight, were part and parcel of greatness.

But Greatness is so much more, how can we limit it to size, to stature, to weight, to dimension?

Take, for example, the phrase 'a great person'. Does a great person need to be tall, heavy, and generally imposing? Nah, not really. If that were the case, people such as Mahatma Gandhi would not deserve the adjective. Same goes for people like Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Jesus Christ, or Socrates, to mention but a few.

Another example: what do you have to do to have 'a great time'? Little, really. Mostly it's a matter of spending time with people you love, doing things you enjoy despite the economic or social impact they may have, and generally enjoying life for and as it is. You can have a great time going for a walk in the park, having friends over for a BBQ, or merely watching a film while holding hands with one you love.

So it is with most things in life. In fact, Life is Great, all on its own, and so are each and every one of its parts. Sure, some bits are more awe-inspiring than others (the Northern Lights, a volcano erupting, a tiger springing from the fronds by the path,...) but, when we look closely... How great is an embryo? How great for a mother to feel the tiny first flutter of movement within her body? How great all the tiny fingers and toes of a newborn? How great is the possibility of life in every shoot in spring? How great and heartwarming the shrill chirping of tiny chicks following their parents, daring to explore an amazingly huge word?

We are all Great, for every aspect of us is miraculous, courageous, creative, unscripted as yet. That we decide to measure ourselves and find ourselves lacking is all due to that misunderstanding of what 'great' really means. It is only natural that we will be displeased, for how can we become 'great' if we are aiming for something totally unlike it? We aim to have weight in society, to stand tall, to stand out!, to control large amounts of (fill in the blank), to own ample space and call it 'my house'. All these are very desirable, indeed, but none is great. For they all require a scale to compare it to something else, which is by definition unlike Greatness.

Greatness is Being, because we were all born as a result of that miracle that is Life. All we have to do is Live fully... and have a whole lot of laughs on the way!