We're All Missing Something

We're All Missing Something

When I picked up these numbers at a garage sale many years ago, little did I know how much conversation it would trigger.

Folks coming into my office have had such interesting responses:

• where did you get them? At a garage sale, I think they were house numbers when house numbers were cut in wood.
• hey! the 3's missing. Yes, that's exactly the point
• I love the colour! It was very popular in the 50s and 60s. I had a bath tub in this colour in the first house I bought.
• a little one who was proud that she could add up all the numbers. Bravo, now that's thinking!
• why do you have it there? Because it's a daily reminder to me.

What do these numbers mean to you?

I see their awkward balancing act and each time it reminds me of a missing piece, the gap in all of us. The way we do our best to stand up straight.

In the stories we tell ourselves based on our memory of things past, in how we halt our own growth, in how we put limits on our courage, in our patterns of fear, in why our dreams seem just outside our reach.

Sometimes that missing 3 feels as large as an ocean, a huge leap, that we learn to ignore. Until one day when we just don't see it anymore.

Why bother? we think to ourselves. This is just the way I am. (Tweet This)

We can learn to ignore most gaps, until the pain gets too much. Until the day arrives when we are brave enough to question, what are we missing? And then that 3 can be the most magnificent thing of your life. The day that you realize that YOU can fill in the gap.

I had a colleague who remarked on these numbers each time he entered my space. He laughed about the missing 3, he moved the numbers around when he was feeling playful. He sat silently and nodded as he stared at the 1-2-4-5. And on his last day with us, he told me this...

I understand, he said. Thanks for the reminder that we're all missing something. 

We are all missing something. What are you prepared to do about it? (Tweet This)