What to Remember on Waking (pt. 4)

This is the fourth part of a multi-part series of reflections about the world and our place in it. Read Part 1 here. These scattered invitations are meant to serve as directional markers, pointing you toward a way of relating with the world that might do justice to the incredible gift of existence.

by Ezekiel Fugate

What to Remember on Waking (pt. 4)

What to remember on waking: The gift of your life must be given away ultimately. Your death binds you to eternal life. As you perish, your body becomes the final sacrament as it unravels its delicate harmony to feed the onward creative pulse. The river of life has flowed continuously since it sprang forth so many billions of years ago out of the generative matrix of Earth. You are entrusted to carry a sliver of this stream ever so slightly forward, and then you are required to hand it off—gracefully or not. With the sliver that you carry, you have a choice: to strengthen the flow of life or to diminish it. This choice is made in each moment and in each encounter, no matter how seemingly insignificant it may be. Even now, in this very moment, the choice is yours to consecrate this breath, to embrace the sacred depths of the world, including your own. But remember to be gentle with yourself if you struggle to stay open; for the trauma that you carry keeps you contracted for a reason. The path of healing, which is the path of opening, is a slow one, and you cannot walk it alone.