When I was little, on sunny afternoons, my grandfather would always stop the red wagon that he was pulling me on in front of a bush of flowers. He would lean down and bury his face into the most plump collection of petals on the biggest, brightest flower and breathe it all in. He’d carefully pull it closer to me so that I could smell it, too. “There will be a time,” he said, “when smelling flowers won’t be free anymore. So I’m going to sniff as many as I can before it’s too late.” Ever since then, I have never passed a garden, bush or vase without stopping and smelling the flowers. I was taught to appreciate life in its most delicate forms, from baby birds in a nest, to tiny frogs that hopped around in the pile of birch wood in my grandfather’s backyard. Every creature has a place and a job to be done. I am so grateful to have been shown how to live a life full of empathy for the planet and its collective members. Though I wish that everyone could share my views about how wonderful the world that surrounds us really is, I know that is not the case. So, in an effort to catalyze understanding, I figured that I would try and explain things from my point of view.

Does it make us ignorant if we are unable to recognize uniqueness? I heard someone say in a class of mine that seeing one sunset is enough for him because once you have seen one, you have seen them all. I think this statement answers my question. The whole world is interconnected. We are connected to the animals, insects and plants around us; all of the creatures on this earth are on a continuum, working together to make the world a place to live. Somehow, we only have an appreciation for things that are aesthetically pleasing, but never are we able to look at the ground on which we stand and be grateful that we have a place to grow upward. We decide which beings deserve sentient and if we believe that they don’t, they end up on our plate or in an enclosure.

And somehow, the sun can set every day, yet none of us (myself included) have the time to watch it, let alone see it for what it is: the closing of a series of events that make up a reality for every creature on the planet. There isn’t a tomorrow guaranteed. We can only take things as they come, and I think that is why I pay so much attention to the smallest of details. I have been thinking a lot about all that we take for granted in this life. We become used to everything and forget that in a second, it can be gone. For a lot of people, this doesn’t even cross their mind. I’ve accumulated a sense of my place, a perspective, if you will, about my contribution to the role I hold on this planet. There are some moments that will live with us forever, just because they happen in the present and belong only to us.

What you know is not the absolute – there is so much that you have yet to experience. Your opinions, ideals, dreams and aspirations will change as you grow through your life. Metaphorically speaking, the more sunsets you watch, the more you will come to recognize how much a part of the planet you are. The more chances you give to the creatures that you label as being beneath you, the more you will see that they see the same scope of world through their eyes as you do. I encourage everyone to better understand the purpose we have here. We can’t afford to be ignorant of others’ perspectives, intellectually or emotionally, human or animal. Self-acceptance is equated with the understanding that we share the earth with other natural beings, and that one day along the road, we will die. I can express gratitude for this place through humility. No one is excellent; we are all ignorant, to some degree. The sooner that is accepted, the more we can all learn.