Empty Matters

We spend so much of life chasing things that won’t last, trying to meet expectations that may not even be our own. Meanwhile, the things that matter most are already here: how we live, how we love, and whether we have the courage to be ourselves.

.   .   .

If 99.9% of what we do, have, or become ultimately doesn’t matter, the least we can do is bring some kindness and uplift wherever we go.

It’s all perspective. What will last beyond this lifetime? What about a hundred lifetimes, or a hundred thousand? The most precious gifts we have are found here, in the present.

This reality is an egoic, psychological trip, an impermanent trick of light. Everything we strive for, struggle with, plan for, or regret not daring to do will fade or be forgotten… The rest returns to dust.

Your hairstyle, religion, and language; no government, school, border, car, house, bank, book, belief, or victory will matter much beyond a few generations, let alone a millennium.

What are you so worried about? Why so desperate? Why compromise your unconquerable soul for dollars? For social acceptance? For membership in a dysfunctional society?

What is your why? Who are you? If our most basic purpose is to experience life and feel, ideally with some measure of joy, why do we allow endless detours, distractions, and half-baked scripts to lead us away from ourselves and our truth?

We seem predisposed to undermine our capacity to live authentically, then spend our lives trying to repair the damage. And every generation finds new ways to repeat the same rigmarole.

Conformity is common, senseless, and inevitably numbing. We see countless attempts to inject meaning and purpose into ordinary constructs — jobs, careers, corporations, politics, industrialized education — that simply cannot contain or fulfill them.

People don’t want to be managed or preached at. They want to be led, inspired, heard, seen, and challenged in ways that resonate with the heart. They want guidance that helps them find their own song, bringing greater harmony wherever their path may lead.

We treat careers and responsibilities like a terminal disease, much of the burden inherited from post-industrial systems. We allow the system we’re born into to beat our hearts, minds, and bodies into submission, leaving us battered, fatigued, frustrated, confused, and bent out of shape. It’s all rather heavy and convoluted.

So change. Through the ages, our technologies have demanded endless refinement, review, and redesign. The work is never finished. Human beings are no different. You’ll never get it all done. It’s about the journey, remember?

Who you are, right now, works just fine. You are enough. If you feel lacking or incomplete, start with the heart, start with what’s true, and build from there. Let the noisemakers make their noise. Their noise needn’t determine your path.

Love with all of you, so you can ache with all of you. Know when to speak your truth. Know when to shut up. Trust yourself and keep your eyes and your heart open.

Solvitur ambulando