The greater motivation
Is not a reason to start,
But the reason we do not stop
The greater motivation
Is not a push so sudden
That it moves us,
But only for a minute
It is the pull
That only gravity knows,
From a source much greater,
Some place where potential breathes
The greater inspiration
Lingers as it lures, long enough
For its weight to turn to light
And it is welcome.
I remember visiting Metro Manila for the first time as a little kid. Back then, I was seeing an actual city for the first time. We were on the road, somewhere in Makati City.
At the back of the car, I was lying down with my head next to the car door. Looking up, I could see the office towers and condominiums upside-down, whizzing by as we drove past them. Every single one would have been the tallest in the city if it were in my hometown Iloilo.
As we passed each one, I felt that each building had a gravity that was pulling me towards it. It was also likely that, instead, they were bending closer and closer to me, and to the car, and to the road.
They were alive, at least in my senses. The whole city was alive.
That luring feeling and that pull after seeing something larger and more impressive than anything you’ve seen before that moment, it’s a familiar feeling. In my experience, it’s common with the physical eye. When a person’s presence lures us in or when a verse pulls us up towards its sound.
There are rare moments, however, when this same feeling occurs in the mind’s eye. We must have been told, at least once in our lives, to know our “why” or to remember why we do what we do. It’s a vague piece of advice that just leads to more questions.
And although we may not know exactly how to get there, I do think some part of us already knows how it would feel when we do. The mind’s eye has already seen this.