One Spoonful at a Time – guest post by Shawn Smucker

It’s a year of firsts for me … today I have my first guest poster!

Shawn Smucker is a writer who has been involved with some cool writing projects that have included soft pretzels, Amish, big feet and “blessing’s, stupid“. Shawn blogs at Shawn Smucker … where he loves to explore the meaning of serious things like purpose and identity and some not so serious things about living in Paradise. (yes, he seriously lives in Paradise)

Here’s a great piece by him about making time to do things you are passionate about.

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A lot of people walk around these days like they’re in prison. I know, I know, they are free to come and go as they please. They aren’t serving a sentence behind bars…but you wouldn’t necessarily know it if you spoke with them. Or watched how they live their lives.

“Back to the old grind,” they say on Mondays, or after holidays.

“I hate my job. I wish I could do what I want to do,” they say.

“Thank goodness it’s Friday.”

Any of these sentiments sound familiar? Most people don’t even know they’re trapped inside a prison. Most people don’t realize there is an entire world of purpose and vision and excitement waiting for them. As Henry David Thoreau said,

“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.”

* * * * *

Ever seen the movie Shawshank Redemption? It’s basically the story of a man in prison. All appearances would suggest that this man, Andy Dufresne, is going about his daily routine as someone who has given in to serving out his life sentence. He helps in the library. He takes care of the warden’s bookkeeping, he wanders aimlessly around the prison yard.

But appearances can be deceiving.

* * * * *

Do you ever feel like you are living in a prison? Do you ever feel trapped by your life? There’s something you can do: each and every day spend a little time doing something you are passionate about.

At first it seems like a small thing, really…writing for thirty minutes, or running a mile, or working in your garden. But there is something waiting for anyone who commits even a small amount of time to doing something they love.

Freedom.

* * * * *

Years after Andy is incarcerated, he escapes. Turns out that every night he was using a tiny rock hammer, usually used to make small stone sculptures, to chip through the prison wall in his cell. He covered the hole every day with a poster. And each day, when he appeared to be wandering aimlessly through the prison yard? Andy was actually emptying out spoonfuls of dirt from inside the rolls of his jeans.

It took him years and years to dig that hole, one spoonful at a time.

The final scene of the movie shows Andy walking slowly down a crystal white beach in Mexico. It’s a striking contrast from the gray drabness of the prison.

Freedom is always a striking contrast from an imprisoned life.

* * * * *

I ask again: do you feel trapped by your life?

Do just one thing you are passionate about. One spoonful at a time. And one day you’ll realize.

You’re free.