tapping the wellsprings

“Fewer. Deeper.” The main metaphor I have for this blog comes from a story about a person who was digging a well. He dug fifty feet in one place, but didn’t find any water. He moved off a ways, and dug another hole, again, fifty feet, but no water. And another, and another. Perhaps way over there – more digging, another fifty foot hole, but no springs gushing up to quench his thirst. And he was really getting thirsty by now! He finally decided to ask advice. Surely people had been able too find water around here.  He found a person who seemed well-hydrated, whose garden was lush, and whose fountain burbled pleasantly. “What am I doing wrong?” the man asked. “Am I digging in the wrong spot?” “No,” the person told him. “You’ve dug in good spots, and certainly have dug enough holes. But instead of five fifty foot holes, try digging only one, and just keep going deeper.”

This is the advice I am following right now. I have hit the “fifty foot mark” over and over again in my life. I’ve shown far more promise than results, and more failures than a glance at my resume would hint at. It’s hard to keep my courage up, and keep digging. All around me, it seems, people have hit their wellsprings. I’m still thirsty. But I’m still digging, too.

So…fewer. Deeper.