“Nature leaves nothing unchanged. It cuts through the certainty of life a knife. It teaches us to be humble. It teaches us to survive, to comply, to win – not on our terms – but the terms we are given. We live by the eternal laws only the universe understands.”
~ Maria Lehtman
What does it mean for a stone to be tumbled in the oceans for eons, losing the sharp edges and the rough exterior? Do we understand the essence of a stone? The energy captured within the apparently cold and immobile exterior.
Is it not like us before we interact with people, have a clash of feelings, filled with ignorance before we understand the journey of a life.
What is the power we truly hold?
I have come to realize there is only one power that human beings possess. The only one that survives the passing of time, material gains, status, age – any circumstance.
We may gain the world and lose everything in the process. We may lose all and gain a world. The only difference is what we believe we have gained. If it made an ounce of difference to someone else than us. If we learned, matured, became wiser.
Nature is called the great equalizer and not without reason. A hurricane does not divert its path because of our lineage. A storm does not dwindle down nor a landslide slow down because of our achievements.
What does it leave us if our future is governed by a power beyond our control?
The secret force of hope
Survival and development were always based on hope. The only power that surpasses any other force of nature, or human for that matter. A heart can be broken, a soul left in the shadows, a future seemingly vanishing behind a curtain of grey clouds.
Yet, we continue – persevere. We lose one edge at a time, the sharpness that makes it easy to judge others by appearance, their past, their merits or any other classification. Some call being rounded a weakness. I do not believe they have ever been tested in the well of desperation, traveled the journey to the shadows and returned with greater integrity. The lesson was lost on them. Sometimes forgotten when life turns around.
To stay kind and fight to give hope to others was never a weakness. It was always the beginning of greatness.
The tumbled stones always represented hope to me. Their soft clicking against each other at the seaside. The waves endlessly washing away and returning grains of sand like a global heartbeat. It reminds me that all our lives are connected – in a parallel reality, there is always hope even if there is desperation.
Maria, I love this .
Thank you so much, Larry. I miss the Mediterranean beaches with the clicking, round stones. But I love our large granite slates here that get warm in the Sun and create such a lovely contrast against the blue sea. Hope remains while there is nature in the world.