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Embrace Nothing and Have Everything

 

What do our accomplishments amount to when placed on the scales of the cosmos? Do our lives count for anything in the face of eternity? Where will the museums and libraries full of the most celebrated works of art and literature be in ten thousand years? Nothing lasts forever, not even the earth and sky.

What will the achievement of lofty goals matter when the earth is a charred cinder orbiting a red dwarf? Was Shakespeare correct when he wrote, “Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more... a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing."?

This is not a dirge; it is a celebration! If our accomplishments and our very lives ultimately signify nothing, we are truly free. Free to stop worrying about product and embrace enjoyment of process. Free to be who we will; free to value what we choose to value.

The value of a single day does not dwindle to nothing on the scales of the cosmos and our lives matter, even in the face of eternity. If we are ultimately nothing and our past is unalterable and our future uncertain, then all we have is today. Today is all we ever had or ever will have.

Today is everything. We are not valueless and our days do not signify nothing. On the scales of the cosmos, in the face of eternity, and possessing nothing but today, each one of us and each one of our days is of incomprehensible rarity and singular preciousness.

My nothingness does not depress me; I embrace it. It gives my mind the freedom and the wings to ride updrafts of unbounded joy and priceless beauty. I can let misfortune and grief drag me out of the sky and chain me down, or I can embrace misfortune as the measure of the worth of good fortune. I can bear my grief as the measure of the value of what has been lost.

So, whether that hand is young and supple and strong, or old and stiff and weak, reach out and lay hold of as big a chunk of today as you can, because by tomorrow, today will be irretrievable. Lay hold of your only possession, seize the day.