Lest We Forget

This is no accident

Image for post — Photo by Seth Doyle on Unsplash

We are all here on a sacred spiritual journey. We didn’t come here to get rich, or to command armies, or to die with the most toys. We came here for a reason. The beauty of the adventure is that we don’t get to know why we chose this life. Not while we’re still here anyway.

I had a dream last night that my late wife and I had a baby. A little boy. Scrawny and dark with a complexion and face that held none of the features of either myself or my wife. At three months old he was standing in his crib and telling me who I was. He spoke clear sentences. He was mischievous, funny and full of love. As I changed his diaper he looked in my eyes and joked with me. As we walked down the street he greeted everyone and ran around playing hide and seek with me in wanton joy. He brought bright smiles to all the faces in the crowd.

This short dream triggered a vague sense of deja vu. As if I were being given a little hint of those memories I’d left behind me. In my headlong pursuit of “what I was supposed to do” I seem to have misplaced what I actually came here to do. For what does a tiny child know of life in this world? They know love, they know kindness, they know vulnerability. They know fun, and how to live a life as if tomorrow wasn’t something to dread. They don’t think about tomorrow at all. Today is all that exists to them. And today is enough.

There are big things that need doing in this world. And more reasons than one can imagine for dreading tomorrow. But if we all lived life as if we were little children, would that be so bad? Love everyone, be kind, show your vulnerable side. Bring smiles to the faces of everyone you meet. Make them laugh and pass along some joy.

I think we could heal the world. One lost soul at a time.

Empty

When nothing means everything

There’s a certain kind of power granted to one when they realize that they have no control over the future. We are minuscule little deflections in the matrix. Very little of what we do here matters, in the grand scheme of things. Does that mean we should just throw up our hands and concede defeat? Not at all. In fact;

It’s all terribly important. But none of it really matters.

In the end, nothing much of what we do here will be remembered. But, to those we love, it can make all the difference. And sometimes, it means everything to someone we’ve never even met. Every single one of us has the power to change lives. One at a time. That irrelevant seeming little post you make on social media means nothing to 99.9999999% of the population but there’s always the possibility that what you say reaches deep into the consciousness of that one person and gives them the hope they need today. Maybe you only save their life today. But tomorrow their whole world changes. Would you deny them that? If all you had to do was show up and be present?

We all wonder what our purpose here is. What if it’s as simple as telling someone they matter to you? In the darkest of hours, that can feel like someone just threw you a lifeline. We never know the circumstances of the lives we touch. Does that mean we should stop reaching out? I think it means we should extend our hands. Even if they are repeatedly slapped away. The ones who need that help will find us there to help them up. It’s the way of the universe. Ask, and you may receive. Whenever it’s in our power, we should be the ones who are there.

When no one else would hear my pain, I found you, with a hand open and willing to help.

The Voyage of a Lifetime

Humans are explorers. We always have been. I would submit that it’s the reason we manifest onto this plane in the first place. To boldly go where we’ve never gone before. Physically, intellectually, emotionally, even sexually. We may be wired to seek comfort. But we’re not happy in that place.

Most of us will wind up in an unsatisfying, soul crushing JOB, or whole series of jobs. For the better part of forty years. Is that what we should be doing? With this one glorious opportunity for adventure?

Nobody gets out alive. Again, for those of you in the back —

No one gets out alive!

Goals are great but they’re also limiting. See, you can’t really set a goal for an outcome you can’t even envision. And any true adventurer will tell you, the best part of the adventure is the stuff that happens in between the destinations you set out to reach. To me, approaching life as an open-ended adventure is much more enjoyable than attaching yourself to some goal. Obviously, everyone’s mileage will vary but I find the happiest people to be the ones who find enjoyment in the everyday surprises that life hands us. The achievers and over-achievers never seem to find satisfaction. As soon as they’ve conquered the mountain, they’re off setting their sights on the next.

When you’re lying on your deathbed are you really going to bask in the glow of making partner at twenty-five? Will you brag about the AI you wrote that replaced fifteen hundred call center employees? Likely not. But what about that day you hiked up to Horsetail Falls on a cold February afternoon with your best friend and watched the water catch fire at dusk? Or the day you dove off the bow of that little sailboat into the azure blue sea of the Caribbean on your second date with the woman who’s now, fifty years later, sitting in the chair next to your bed?

Life is made of moments of magic and wonder. Like fairies and leprechauns, they disappear out of the corner of your eye if you don’t pay attention. What, you don’t believe in fairies or leprechauns? Probably think dragons are some fantastical, mythical creatures too, eh? Well, it’s not my job to convince you of what you refuse to see. So, keep setting your focus on the goal in front of you, to the exclusion of all else. Just be prepared to miss making the memories that bring all the color and texture to life.

“To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise, you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen who play with their boats at sea… “cruising” it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in.” — Sterling Hayden

There’s a time and a place for reaching out and making things happen. For sitting on top of the world and surveying all you’ve achieved. Just remember, the most interesting people in the world don’t sit behind a desk for sixty hours a week running the sales figures for the last quarter. Admit it, that’s not what you really want to be doing with your life either.

Don’t wait too long or you’ll be too tired to make a life while you’re so busy making a living.

Thank you for your time.