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celebration
March 2009 
Celebrating Life
Sora Ryu
Today, I contemplated my existence.
I realized that when I look up at the stars, around each of them could be a dozen or so planets that support life, their populations each in the billions. I realized that each one of these billions of sentient organisms could believe that he was important and that everything he did was equally important, when all I see is a couple of stars.
I thought to the ancient Egyptian, the ancient Babylonian, the Persian, the Roman, the woman of China, those who had gone before who lived out their lives to the best of their ability, who died and were mourned. Yet, I and so many others know not there doings. They were faceless in the multitudes.
I walk on the street or in the subway and see multitudes daily, each individual in this multitude living out his or her separate existence. I see them and they see me. We pass each other, will never know even each other's names.
We lift up our exceptions, the names we remember, whose deeds we will never forget. We treasure their greatness and beauty, even as statues crumble, and flowers fade away. All the greatness and beauty after death, means nothing to the one who died.
I am not depressed. I am not hopeless. I am not endorsing nihilism. Listen.
I am seeing life as it is, without distractions. Each human goes through his life, wanting attention for all he has accomplished, suffered. Yet, will what he has done, traversed and experienced be remembered a millennium from now?
I see life clearly. All that I am, I am not important as I think I am. Keeping everything in perspective, I exist only as a sentient carbon-based organism living for set amount of years on a water-based planet revolving around a medium-sized star. Nothing more.
But I exist.
I exist. I exist. That's all that matters.
Even if I am a speck of life in a universe travelling into oblivion, I am not insignificant. Even if I am just a statistic in a family of six billion, I am not worthless. Even though I am dwarfed by natural forces that can wipe out any number of lives without mercy, I have meaning. Even if my legacy is nothing but a wisp of smoke in the vast expanses of time and space, I did not exist in vain.
Why? Because I never existed before and I will never exist again. Why? Because no one can ever have an existence like mine and no one ever will. Why? Because if I refuse to exist, no one can ever exist for me. In my singularity, I am.
I pondered my existence and saw that it was so small. How could it be important? But my existence is important in spite of its smallness. It is worthy in spite of its smallness. It is powerful and beautiful in spite of its smallness.
I see my existence clearly, but now I can appreciate it even more. Who can appreciate my existence but myself? If not me, who will? How can I take my own life and snuff out my precious, one-and-only existence? How can I not make the most out of the only thing I truly possess?
In this way must we all realize the importance within ourselves and celebrate, celebrate our precious, one-and-only existence. Celebrate your life. It is beautiful. It is powerful. It is worthy.
Celebrate existing.
Celebrate life.
Access: Public
celebrating with you!
i think of Rilke, of his Duino Elegies that deal a lot with death but really to talk about life in its fullness…
I think of that wonderful statement by Marianne Williamson:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
yes! i have heard that beautiful quote before! thanks for the wonderful comment =D
What an amazing blog, Sora Ryu. It is a meditative journey thru all of space.
Ryu … you are a great writer! I agree with Meenakshi … this sharing of your insights into your existance and your celebration of LIFE is exactly like a journey … I found myself going deeper and deeper with you. Thank you dear friend. I like it when you go deep (((… and I like it when you're light-hearted too!)))
ps … Nicole - I love that quote from Marianne Williamson as well. A friend gave me a copy of it … with a beautiful painting of a woman in the background for my birthday a few years ago! I have to admit that I struggled with the words for a few months (at that time) and now I wear them proudly! :-))
WOW !!! I can remember having almost exactly these same thoughts in almost the same words, but I never wrote them down. This is one of the most beautiful and meaningful things I have ever read. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
This blog plus comments is going straight into the Collective Wisdom: Library of Community Threads if you agree Sora Ryu, and if no one else objects. I will wait a couple of days before donating it there. Or anyone else can donate it, too, after the wait.
Among all the extraordinary and powerful thoughts I resonate with, know, and feel, this one stands out for me as one I know and feel intimately:
Who can appreciate my existence but myself? If not me, who will?
Amen.
OM Bastet
thank you for your kind words!
Got around to watching/listening to the video. The music was so appropriate and evocative !
Here's the link to this blog's entry in Collective Wisdom: The Library of Community Threads. Anyone is welcome to go there and say “YAY” or why you applaud including it there. Any comments more specifically about the blog should stay here.
Gratefully to you, Sora Ryu,
OM Bastet
Sora Ryu,
I came by due to the link on the Collective Wisdom library… and these words have found me in complete resonance with you… it feels good to listen to the music you have shared and to read the words you have written… i feel both the vastness of my consciousness and the tinyness of my being… it's fascinating to sit in two spaces at once… I've been doing a lot of that lately… ;-)
we can be so many things at once…..if we want it to ….our soul can encompass the entire universe, …. for we are all cut from the same matter, energy, soul…..glad to have been some help to you :)
yes, you have been a wonderful help to me… and i'm glad we are officially friends (Gaia is so vast it sometimes takes us a while to find all of our friends, doesn't it?)
it's Wonder-Full that we are able to Connect… given this frame of reference (a blog under construction ;-)
Sora RYU, you said it beautiully and I can only join in your celebration and the beauty of your words, and invite you to read my poem Lessons in love 1 and tell me what you think. Thank you,
Blessings,
Mike