WHAT MATERS

     Someone once said that everything should be honored, but nothing really matters – a truth I have been thinking a lot about lately. Yesterday afternoon I was standing outside in breezy spring sunshine, and I thought, yes, everything should be honored – these sunlit minutes on the lawn, but also all the troublesome and sorrowful times, all the seeming misfortunes. Every event, every situation, every person, every thought, every single moment, should be respected as though it is a precious miracle, because it is. Whatever the universe unfolds for us (whether we conveniently label it “good” or “bad”) is a marvel worth our respect. This doesn’t mean, though, that anything really “matters”, or at least that any one part of creation matters more than any other. In the kind of cosmos that we live in, which is endlessly intricate but also one hundred percent harmonious, no facet of it is more important than any other. Everything, from the farthest star to the most miniscule atom, is of equal value and significance. Everything matters equally, which, in a sense, means nothing really matters, or matters more than anything else. All that truly matters is the completely cohesive and harmonious universe, which has been successfully fashioning and re-fashioning itself for numberless eons, and which will continue to do so into infinity. Instead of thinking I have to fret and fuss about each present moment because everything matters, I should focus my attention on cherishing the astonishing creations of the universe. Instead of taking things so seriously, I should take them, perhaps, more reverently and gratefully.