Out of the Box

We all build boxes around us and tuck ourselves inside. At first, life within the confines of our box is warm and cozy. We fit neatly in, and so we believe that our box was custom made for us. As far as we know, everyone rests comfortably in their own box.

The box seems sturdy, but it is made up of expectations, judgments, fear and limitations, whether perceived or real. Its construct is a joint effort between ourselves and those around us.

Over time, inside the box starts to get stuffy. The warmth and coziness that we have known all our lives slowly dissipate. The air becomes still and it gets harder to breathe. Our trusted box begins to stifle us.

If you know this feeling, I invite you to take the lid off of your box. Feel the fresh air rushing in, the fresh air that heralds in the prospect of new horizons. Shed the light of the sun into your space so that the darkness is lifted and you can see yourself more clearly.

Once the lid is off and you can see yourself without the shadows created by your confines, look beyond your four walls. See that there is more to life than what you have known inside the box. Climb to the place where the lid once rested and peep over the sides of your four corners.

When you’ve looked over its edge and can view your surroundings, see the need around you. The need for genuine connection, the need for brave eye contact that requires so much more than a cursory glance, the need to see and be seen. The need that can only be filled without barriers. Reach beyond the walls of your box. Tear down its walls and bask in the view that wasn’t there before, the new perspective brought about by the removal of the stifling enclosure.

When the walls of expectations and fear are removed, revel in the ability to move freely, to see beyond that which you’ve only ever known, to see where others may be trying to peep beyond their own box but falter, some for lack of knowledge, some for fear. Know that you can reach out to help them out of their box. But first, you must step out of the place where you stand. You must step out of your box.

I hope you remove the lid.
I hope you peep over the edge.
I hope you tear down those walls.
I hope you take that step.

Step out of the box. There’s plenty life to be lived out here.