when we realize we won the lottery
The other day, Zoom wasn't my friend. After my sixth one of the day, I joined our puppy for a moment to paws, breathe, and reflect on the guest bed in my office, or maybe I walked away from my office desk in our guest room.
Either way, when I looked up at the ceiling, I noticed the old newspapers that we framed about the moon landing - I was a bit of a NASA nerd growing up, and it's still with me today.
Then I just laughed at my Zoom troubles.
When you step back, like all the way back beyond the cheap seats, and think about the universe, how lucky are we?!?
We live on this tiny planet relative to the size of the sun and universe that can sustain life. It's like we won the lottery, but better.
And yes, we have challenges - not everyone's lottery winnings are the same. I say this as a white dude living in a better-than-your-average bear suburb of NYC.
There's racism, sexism, and many other isms. Things break, we get sick, people can be jerks, the planet is on fire, we give too many people more than fifteen minutes of fame, and this list can go on and on.
And what a time to be living!
With all of our challenges, I wouldn't want to live in 1492 or even 1922.
We, humans, can solve complex problems, read a bad romance novel, create art, fix a homemade meal, and fall asleep in a bed where you can customize its firmness all within the same day. We can send people into space, examine cellular structure, and find a way to join Zoom. We can know every lyric to every Taylor Swift song and choose not to know where our food comes from.
Wait, that last one isn't a good thing.
That's a problem, but it's one we can solve.
We can do both at the same time.
That's a problem, but it's one we can solve.
We can do both at the same time.
Here's the thing...we are on this tiny planet in this massive universe for the briefest moment. None of us make it out of the life alive. You will never get any younger. Sorry, but it's true.
According to Buddha, there's suffering in life, but it's also awesome sauce. But we can't appreciate it if we are rushing from moment to moment and miss the sense of wonder in all the moments between our moments.
Yes, our big moments are aaaamazing, but the moments that make our life rich and beautiful are all the little moments between the big ones.