Bricks of all sizes have weight and size. They most likely won’t fit in a purse and are tall or wide enough to trip over if one is in the path where you are walking.
What’s interesting about them is how invisible they are in the world. We see only buildings, architecture, and skylines. The end product is all we notice. Never the bricks.
While you can find some types of bricks at a hardware super store, we rarely go shopping for them. Rarely to be found in garage sales or church bazaars, bricks are both ubiquitous and scarce in our normal daily lives.
Why talk about bricks? They are such a great metaphor for us to think about in building our own lives.
How many conversations have we been in where people talk about their great idea as if the house they are describing was already built? Never thinking about the bricks they will need first to build it.
How many times have we been frustrated because we want to do something so badly (like build a house) but don’t have any idea where to go to start (or in this case find our first brick)?
How many times do we walk by a brick and never pick it up (like we do with a penny) because it’s heavy and odd and of seemingly no use at the time?
It’s easy to see why we never consider it important to first find bricks. We see everything finished around us. Magnificent buildings that catch our eye are always complete. We see celebrities complete, as if instantly made, once we become aware of them. Design is admired in its totality and never by its parts.
Finding bricks is such an important skill for us to master once we are no longer fooled by finished things. Our lives are built with bricks that we first must find, before putting them in a place to be helpful, one at a time. The more solid the brick – the stronger our foundation. The heavier the brick – the more time and energy it will take to move it so that it becomes ours.
Bricks don’t spoil. They can easily be used a year or two later. The same thing is true about learning new skills or acquiring new knowledge that doesn’t quite fit what you are doing today for they may become valuable later in your journey.
Bricks help create form, function, and utility in what they create through their use. They are additive in that using one with another builds height or length. All of the same things that new skills, knowledge or tools can do for our own lives over time as you find them.
Sadly, many times we are too much in a rush to understand why finding bricks is so important.