Live Outside the Lines

Life on the ground is often rigid. We spend the better part of our days living between the lines, whether it’s the boundaries of a house or office, the narrow edges of a sidewalk, or the slightly wider lines of a highway. It’s easy to believe we’re well-traveled until we realize that all we’re doing is swapping out the confines of one city for another.

I think that’s one of the reasons I like flying. From the air, the lines are blurred, if seen at all. From the air, most of those lines mean nothing. I can slice them up, crossing at odd angles, but best of all, I can ignore them. On the ground, I have to follow the lines, bound by a path someone else put down long ago.

Then there are the invisible lines drawn all around us. Society wants us to “walk the line,” to “stay on the straight and narrow.” It expects us to “keep it between the lines,” and above all, forbids us to “cross the line.”

For today, I plan to find ways to step outside the lines, even if it’s only beyond the ones I’ve created for myself, those invisible ruts of habit that keep me doing the same things over and over. For today, I will look for ways to slip off the beaten path even if only to pierce the green curtain of some nearby woods for a few moments, to view the world from an alternate angle and marvel how different it looks from my new vantage point.

For today, I’m going to dare the lines of my life to contain me.

What lines will you cross today?