Season 25

There's an ancient Greek proverb that states, "a society grows great when old people plant trees, the shade of which they know they will never sit in". I like this. It emphasises the importance of giving to the future, not with the intention of reaping return, but with the intention of being kind and hopeful.

-

Human beings, as a species, are desperate to find meaning; we all seek patterns in the incidental, purpose in life. Constellations for example, they're entirely man-made concepts, they're not real, they're not inherently natural. The universe just gave us stars, and in those stars we saw magic and myths, possibility. Similarly, we often like to struggle under the guise of 'everything happening for a reason'. I don't know if I personally believe that everything has a reason behind it. There are a lot of things that seem too nonsensical to me to have a reason behind them, like when you get your sleeve caught on a door-handle or why we exist. It makes sense to me for nothing to makes sense. I find that rather comforting.

We also all try desperately to stick around and leave our mark in history. It's why we left markings on cave walls, why we bury time capsules and plant trees. It's sanguine. It's the recognition that there will be a future and the want to be a part of it. I was here. Please don't forget me. When people die we carve our love into stone. We whisper to the ages, can you see how much I loved them? Can you see how much I will always love them? We can only hope that in hundreds of years people will whisper back to us, oh yes. Yes we can see how much you loved them. Because that's the thing about kindness, it can go both ways. Plant trees the shade of which you know you will never sit in, bury time capsules, carve love into stone because it's kind to the future and because sometimes, if the stars are in the right place, hope will whisper back to you.

-

Season 25 was hope whispering back to me. For five years I kept going through injury and mental struggles, not out of belief that it was all happening for a reason, but out of courtesy to future me. This year, both personally and physically, I have been lucky enough to reap the rewards of this perseverance, and it is luck because not everyone is afforded such luxury; a return on giving to the future. I have been so privileged to be able to reflect on the previous versions of me who fought for progress. It is such a gift to be able to tell them that they did it. To be able to take the pen from the grasp of unfortunate circumstances and tell younger me that she doesn't have to fight anymore; I've got our story from here. And in case you haven't noticed, it's that story, the story I endeavour to tell in this blog, the stories I feel compelled to tell with every ounce of my being, that are my attempt to stick around.

-

I end this season on 13.21; excited, grateful and motivated. Ignis Aurum Probat.

-

We are all elements. We were all once fizzing in distant constellations, we are all now contemplating as human beings (although my analytics tell me my blog is a big deal on Mars so perhaps not all of us), and I believe we will all one day be the whistles in the wind and the hum of the night sky. There's nothing personal about this universe. We are all just a story, so let's make it good one.

LM