A quote attributed to Albert Einstein (that the internet calls unconfirmed) is as follows: “There are only two ways to live your life: One is as though nothing is a miracle; the other is as if everything is.”
While I’ve been dallying in the realm of nihilism, contemplating the ineffectuality of all our toils, I’ve felt pretty unenthused. hashtag surprise.
I’m reminded of several years ago when I sat in a circle of women sharing about their spiritual journeys and one older woman said that sometimes she felt that as she prayed, she was talking into a phone that wasn’t connected to anything. She didn’t know if her prayers were heard, if they mattered.
But.
She said that she felt better inside herself when she did that act of praying anyway. Whether it was “received” or not, whether there were any “thing” on the other end of her prayer, she felt better.
So it begins to dawn on me that whether or not the seas are rising, the permafrost is melting, and swaths of earth are prey to fire, famine, drought, and flood…
If I believe in nothing, that nothing is a miracle, it feels too burdensome.
Perhaps religion is the opiate of the masses, but if the alternative is to see that squarely and soberly the world is an inevitable plane of demise, then I’ll take a hit of faith!
If to make meaning out of life means that I feel more engaged in it, then I moreso feel that I’m not wasting the time I do have on this planet. If to make it all meaningless and a hollow marking of time means that I feel less engaged in life, then I really do feel that I miss the mark.
Whatever the result of the “kids/no kids” decision, I know that I have to come to the light again, for my own heart and also for the impact I have (actually or energetically) on those around me.
Whether or not there is someone on the other end of the phone, I must allow myself to believe in connection. Whether or not there are indeed miracles in the world… well, I saw a double rainbow on the drive to work yesterday, and I can call that whatever I want, but calling it awe-inspiring and a gift of this life, brings levity to my soul.
Owning Voice 