We are often so caught up in our own lives that we forget about the important aspects of life and how blessed we are. We should be more than humbled by how fortunate we are to be alive. As a society, we have fallen so accustomed to minimizing the value of the things we encounter every day that we would fall apart without. For instance, when was the last time you stopped and took the time to reflect on how genuinely grateful you are to have a place to call home, a loving family, or even an education? Or even for the simple things, like the moon and the stars?
We are constantly so blinded by our selfish nature that we cannot even fathom simply putting ourselves in someone else’s position and seeing a situation from a perspective any other than our own narrow one. Our problems are no more important than those of anyone else in the world. Everyone goes through struggles and heartbreaks, but that does not grant us the permission to dismiss those of our neighbors. So why is it that we try and act as though we are superior to others, as if we are not all made from the same dirt and dust?
It pains me to realize that most people see this life simply as a singular opportunity for self-actualization and trampling over each other to get to the top. For what purpose? There is none. Whether you believe it to be by the grace of God or just the luck of the draw that the universe dealt, we were granted our talents and privileges while others might not have been so lucky. We did not create these things that we are so prideful of and they are certainly not ours to keep. There is no way for us to even be sure that we deserve what we have been given, but what we can be sure of is that it is our job to maintain and manage it all and use it for the well-being of mankind until the day comes that we have to return everything that we once held dear.
At the end of the day, this world is all we have. To live in a world with such potential for peace, light, and love is a blessing that none of us will ever be able to fully comprehend. We may be a ways away from fulfilling that potential, however, it is up to us to live our lives in such ways that our impacts will leave even the slightest bit of hope for the rest of humanity to come after us. Therefore, we should take it upon ourselves to give everything we are back to this world and to the people who inhabit it. The universe owes us absolutely nothing and whether we tend to forget that or try our best to ignore it, it remains a fact.
