Art by Liezel Lüneburg. What goes around swims around.
Oh, what joy there is in drawing koi fish! The colors, the form, the grace, the stories marking the elegant bodies… Fish are one of the most fulfilling subjects to draw. I think it has to do with the harmonious way in which the fish's body becomes one with its surroundings, so unlike most people who appear to be out of place in the human world, uncomfortable in their own skins.
The other night I watched a presentation titled “Nothing in life really matters”.
In it the author created a visual picture of the infiniteness of the universe - life - illustrating in a sense, earth and the physical size and relationship between all the planets, stars and the rest and how “insignificant” us human beings are in comparison.
Based on this insignificance - he questions the importance of all the many things and situations we humans encounter daily and how we respond to the latter. How and where we place ourselves within society - hierarchies - our places of work and leisure and the status of importance we attribute to ourselves and from where, we then dictate downwards on those who we consider of lesser or no importance.
The current multitude of challenges we confront at this time are of such significance that it has, I would imagine, at least on some level, forced each of us to dedicate some time and thought to determine the focus of what and where our priorities, should be. It dictated, and will for some time to come, force us to consider new paradigms and possibilities. We have but little, or some would even submit - no choice but to consider the importance of almost all the elements in this - what we refer to, as life.
Did someone die because of this or that mistake by someone else? If not - why are we raising hell through verbal, or even physical abuse and action to illustrate our perceived position of being more important - more educated - richer or whatever motivation you want to use to claim - again - your perceived superiority.
A spiritual teacher of mine of years back shared the following analogy. The universe is like a puzzle. Ages ago the universe experienced the “big bang” and pieces of this once beautiful universe were scattered all over. Over time though, as each of these pieces are being brought back to its rightful place within the puzzle we call the universe, healing is happening within every single moment. Most often though, we are so bombarded with the noise of our own importance, that we do not notice this.
We buy a large colorful and sometimes complicated puzzle from the shop - clear the dining room table and start constructing the outer edge of this puzzle. Over time and many hours of painstaking concentration, we reach that point where we only need one or two small pieces to complete this beautiful and exciting picture. But wait - holy cow - we can’t find the latter! Everyone is up in arms and pointing fingers but our best efforts do not find those pieces. What do we do? What do you do?
I have, on occasion grabbed a plastic bag, chucked everything in there and just trashed it.
Now - let’s return to the question of what really matters.
Everything matters. Something may well be less significant within a particular environment, situation or moment - but it is not less important than anything and everything else - no one person is less important than the other - no piece of that puzzle or element within the universe is less or of lesser importance than the next.
We cannot be - do, or become the true essence of who we are, without the other. Without the lost pieces of that puzzle, it is incomplete - it cannot be what the picture on the box promised us.
Everything matters - everything is connected - every breath - every physical action - every thought -however insignificant within the big picture, creates a connection with the next element of life. The universe responds to this. Quantum physics has proved that once one atom/particle has had contact with another, its connection with the other - irrespective of the distance between them, is infinite and the vibration of one influences the other. It is referred to as quantum entanglement.
Everything matters.
Or if you want - everything is an important as it is unimportant…
A wise man once said that the character of man is reflected in the manner he/she treats those from whom he/she has nothing to gain.
Everything matters.
And well - karma is a bitch …
