I Am Sad for Those Who Choose To Be So Small 

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I Am Sad for Those Who Choose To Be So Small

By Jane Tawel

August 15, 2025

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I pity those who choose to be so small.

Especially those perhaps, who,

elevated to heights of grandeur,

living as this world’s supposedly elites

given prestige, power, and wealth,

who stand upon the mountain tops — 

and yet, choose to crawl in the dirt

where they see only the specks of dirt in others’ eyes,

where they throw dirt at others attempting to dehumanize them;

where they debase themselves with petty actions,

meant to hurt others in their quest for more — 

more power — there is never enough;

more things — there are never enough;

more wealth — there is never enough;

more attention — there is never enough;

more fame, and praise, and adulation — there are never enough.

More and more and more……

Because there is never enough.

Because they — are never enough.

I can only pity them.

How little they know.

How little they are.

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I feel sad for those who choose to be so small.

They make the world hold up a fun-house mirror

allowing them to appear to themselves as big and grand,

as huge as their egos fight to make them feel.

I feel sad but it is hard for me to feel empathy

because I am still angry at the harm they do to others.

Why do small people become bullies?

If we all see in a cloudy mirror, darkly,

how sad it must be for those the world makes appear

so much bigger than the rest of us,

to sometimes get a glimpse of their true selves,

of the small needy child reflected back.

I wish Someone would tell them:

“It is the humble who inherit true life”.

I wish Someone would hold them

like the little angry, fearful children that they are.

And A Good Parent would say, “Fear not, for I-AM with you”.

And then they would no longer be angry that they too will die someday.

And then they would no longer be afraid to share their toys.

Because they would know that The Good Parent has enough

for all of us.

And that The Good Parent believes that each of us IS enough.

Because we are all Her children.

Even the naughty ones.

Even the ones who try to appear so big.

Even the small ones.

Even you and me.

And all of us small children,

could Be — One. Big. Happy Family.

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I feel sad for those who choose to be so small.

I too, have chosen to be small, to stay small,

to let my ego convince me that it must grow and grow and grow…

By being right,

By being in charge and in control,

By being this or that or “someone”.

I, too, have made myself small

by making myself feel bigger

compared to someone else –

a friend, a boss, a spouse, a child, a stranger.

I, too, have chosen smallness of spirit,

Not realizing that smallness is never Spirit.

For how can something small contain

The Spirit?

How can any small container hold

that which is enormous, spacious, eternal?

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I have used the same methods the large people use

to make myself small –

I have used anger and fear and judgment

And I have used them against you –

And I have used them against me — 

And I have thought that those things reduced you compared to me.

And I have thought those fears and angers and judgements against myself

were things I could hold on to as important — 

But they aren’t important unless I use them to grow;

Unless I use them to grow something Good.

My anger, fear, and judgement are the dirt — 

And yes, I recognize that dirt can make things grow,

But what I choose to do with the dirt matters;

what I choose to plant in that dirt is what matters.

I can plant weeds or flowers; I can plant food or golden towers.

My emotions are not me, any more than my thoughts are me.

My emotions and thoughts can be the trash that fill me up

like an overflowing dump, like a landfill.

Or I can let my emotions and thoughts be the mud,

the decaying compost

that lets the lotus grow

that nourishes Abundant Life.

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I am sad for those who choose to stay so small.

Next to the little ripple that I make,

they appear as huge waves — as tsunamis, some of them — 

it sometimes still makes me angry at their destructive paths,

it sometimes still makes me afraid,

afraid for the children who must one day

try to clean-up the mess on the shores

we leave behind in our time.

And yet, those who make big waves do not realize

that we are all just small, temporary appearances

on Life’s surface.

We are none of us any more than

small ripples on One Big Endless Ocean.

How sad to look for large-ness in one’s small self,

when if one only looked around, and looked inside,

one would see the Vastness of The Ocean she is

One With.

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Oh!

What peace I find!

What joy I embrace!

Passing understanding, peace settles in,

when in this single, only moment that I have

I AM –

I am that one, small ripple at One with your one, small ripple.

In that Being,

my spirit enlarges

and together we grow and grow and grow

to Be

One Huge Ocean.

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The Wise One said,

“This too shall pass — as every time does,

as every moment does”.

All names go down in someone’s history,

and then that history passes out of all remembrance.

The Wisdom of the One Spirit

can not be contained in old wine skins:

Always new and renewing, it bursts forth from the old,

renewing and renewing into Eternal I-AM-ness.

And seeing the finger pointing at the moon,

is the signpost not the Truth.

And empathy is only an open door,

to learn to love my enemy as I love myself.

For my enemy IS my Self.

And peeking through the door of empathy,

I see the Light of Love.

And only Love remains.

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© Jane Tawel, 2025