What are we? Why are we here? Does the universe care about us? Do we make a difference?
We don't have an answer, and if humanity would replace the time it spends in questioning, with embracing life and sharing happiness, Earth would be a better place. Its all been said before, and in more beautiful words that I can, at least in this very moment. So I stopped trying to come up with some sweet worded theory...I decided that I d rather let others speak through me...
"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us 'universe', a part limited in time and space.
He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.
This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.
Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." Einstein
He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.
This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.
Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." Einstein
People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;
It was never between you and them anyway.
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;
It was never between you and them anyway.
(mother Teresa, Anyway poem)
Isn't this amazing ? Einstein, a scientist, and mother Teresa, a saint on Earth, coming to same conclusion: all we need is compassion. It really does not matter the way we live, if we don't live in compassion toward each other and towards ourselves. I believe compassion should be a subject studied by all in schools, part of a national curriculum as important as maths and science are.
In England this year, the new national curriculum sees fractions introduced to five years old! Our children don't need extra work, they need to "live" their childhood. Each generation is getting smarter, helped by the technology push, but our children are not necessarily getting "better" in matters of the heart. We seem to forget how important compassion is. And if the child is unfortunate to come from a broken or dysfunctional family (more than a quarter of today's children will live in a step-family situation) they might be forced to deal with loads of other issues (in America alone, every 78 seconds a teen attempts suicide - every 90 seconds they succeed) before thinking or even experimenting compassion....
We may be insignificant to the universe. But we re not insignificant to each other. And if perfect, as it happens, we are not, we are human. Our life should be driven by compassion. If compassion motivated all our decisions, how would the world we leave to our children be?
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