Considerata VII

Go! To spaces and people whose novelties thrill you
But also revisit the ones familiar to you
Feel how they grow strange
As a sage gauge to how and if you have changed.

Thriving in shielded fields
Missed by the clicks of hand-held eyes
Love-filled pixels of life abide
Creating and re-creating what it means to be alive.

Avoid people who cling to ONLY their one view.
13.8 billion years for the universe
4.6 billion for our planet
is a stupendous waste of space, time and light to glorify just one truth.
Even a fruit fly has views to 800 multiple slices of life.

If you compare yourself with others,
Know that each of us nurtures and hides dozens of selves.
Getting your own many selves together may be the better, nobler task.

We are living longer than ever before.
But nature still turns away when we ask her “why do we have to die?”
So while you are here,
how will you burn your stardust fuel?
By mostly casting the net across the coded sea?
Or attending to meaning, click-free.

Seek lessons from success but remember, failure is the master class,
Failure will sharpen your vision as you forge your life’s work
with the bluest of your inner fires.
But always take time to thank the waiting, cooking, cleaning, farming, repairing souls.
Without them, the collective human tapestry could not unfold.

Recognize deceit, real or virtual.
They fake, therefore they are.  
Be wary of people who say or act as if words did not matter.
Words are wondrous uniquely human-churned chunks of anima rage or glee-
inherently nuked with forces that uplift or shatter.

But never cease to peel the layers of the commonly, starting with the here and now.
The luminescent huddle of pomelo pulpy sacs
or the sublime shadow taste of truffle-stained dishes
all find their once-upon-a-time, in the story of our one Sun.
Resplendence inhabits all – grand canyons, fireflies, planets, storied houses and creamy buns.

Be yourself, as you ride the spikes and troughs of time.
Loving, learning and thanking with the gravitational chutzpah of a supernova
Unleashing powers that birth an evolving you
who make breathing life easier for others too.

If you’re going to stop time
Remember that it can stop itself.
Redirect your stardust energy
to living in it fully, instead.

Reconsider what makes a family
and realize how many more you have, far beyond your ancestry.
Recognize the birthright and much more, the “stayright” of other life forms –
polar bears, whales, bees, and Joshua trees.
Roll out space for new ideas but more importantly, blackhole the unkind and unreasonable ones.
We talk about millennials as if they are not in the room.
We are all spread out in time.
A meaningful conversation between a millennial and a Baby Boomer is bonafide travel in time.

The old can use their canes to point the youth not just to the window but what it frames,
And assure them, no, drive them, to go out and higher, so that their horizons will change.  

Listen.
Behold naked, honest purpose.

“Why” is still the most coveted key
that unshackles fortresses of deities or congresses
and of your own self.
Over morning rice meals or coffee, whisper “why’s” to yourself.

Despite being shrouded in terabytes of login names and passcodes,
you still are part of a genuine event in the universe!
13.8 billion years since the Big Bang
And it is still showing.

And YOU are NOW showing.

Life is the greatest story ever told!
You cannot, must not, write your own story to be less than that.
Deserve your scene in the majestic cosmic stage.
The light shines on you, for now.

Whether or not you care about Darwin’s finches
or Einstein’s gravity or water ripples
This universe is our ONLY stage. 

It birthed all your atoms
In time, it will see you splinter again into atoms.
And the story cycles.

Atoms to atoms.

Find peace with your own humanity
chasing shapeless, uncountable, unformatted truths.
Do not horde the logistics of “here and now” for eternity.
Give it all you’ve got. Now.
But wait, there’s more.
Let it grow.
Our minds can change.
We can forgive, admit to our failures, surrender to a better idea, and let others have their turn.

And as we gaze at the sky that houses our planet’s membrane
whether at moonrise or sunrise,
we lock eyes with a universe that embraces all there is –
the cookery of stars, bicycling couples,
singing and giggling tots, friends in a laughter huddle,
the staggering beauty of underwater life echoed by celestial pools of light.

We catch this moment now as the passing year’s light signs onto the fabric of time.
All that was could now be harvested only by a filter our own memoires.
The universe was here before you made your signature.
It will be here after you sign off.

But only you
Can make your own signature of light
As you pass your own fabric of spacetime.

Dawn is here.
Awaken resplendent with love and light.

Happy New Year.

❆ ❆ ❆

This is called Considerata VII because this is my 7th version through the years of writing a New Year’s science column. It is inspired by Desiderata which is packed with currencies of wisdom. For the previous versions, the links are below. – Rappler.com

Considerata VI | Considerata V | Considerata IV | Considerata III | Considerata II | Considerata