Sitting Still

I sat down with John Chester’s The Biggest Little Farm this week and haven’t stopped thinking about it since. The documentary, which follows a California couple on their quest to conceive an idyllic story book farm, is so much more than a message of hope.

It’s a gentle reminder that the answers we seek come when we’re truly willing to step up and take action. To surrender entirely to the present moment.

Reading about the ‘making of’ process helped me to appreciate how these virtues were not only integral to the farm’s future but to the documentary process itself. Molly and John Chester, the protagonists of the film, had every reason to kick the bucket when the going got ugly. Yet with time they came to understand that these moments, however strange and discomforting, were instrumental to shaping presence.

Without the simple act of presence I could never have conceived of my newsletter (My Favourite Things), self-help manual (Putting Yourself First), kids book (Morris The Octopus) or podcast (Popcorn Therapy).

The answers we may find at the crossroads of life are rarely easy and quite often daunting. Yet they offer a way forward and help us to quit sweating the little things.

Xo