What advice would you give your great-grandchildren?

Every existentialist I know is forever conscious of themes of legacy. Why are they here? What will they leave behind? Does their life have meaning and purpose? How to share that with others?

So when I was asked this question recently, I did a little soul searching before responding with:

Let’s start with my wish for them, echoing the words of poet Fig Ally:

“May you never be subservient.

May you never fall prey to fitting in.

May you always swirl in all the directions the sacred winds want to take you.

May you never hush your laughter or your tears.

May you breathe without restriction.

May you show up every day to the calling that is you and

May you always know the courage of your own heart.”

My advice to aid you in achieving this as best you can, is to start each day by acknowledging both the sacredness and utter ridiculousness that is life. And by that I mean, to be human, is a very odd thing.

We feel the spark of the divine within us, however we conceptualize that, even if it’s “just” the calling of the great beyond outside of us, but it is also housed in an ever-changing, and in many ways, frail avatar of a shell that is subject to weather and aging and hormones and mood swings and more.

So please take yourself seriously enough that you pursue with wild abandon that which brings you pleasure and fulfillment, but never so seriously that it weighs you down with what I promise is temporary insanity. This world needs whatever it is that you are and possess or she wouldn’t have dreamed you into being, and you, my dear, need whatever it is that she comes to mean to you.

Learn to move with her like a wave. Do not resist the undulating rhythm of ebb and flow. Life will draw you back when it needs to and it will propel you forward with incredible strength and inspiration if you allow. And if, you find yourself in a frightening place of being tumbled and tossed in her churning undercurrent, acknowledge the lesson, relax your grip on any delusion of “control,” and allow her to re-align you once more to the unshakable truth that everything is temporary. This too shall pass. The good and the bad. Impermanence is the only constant. So make peace with it. Savor each good moment and allow them to carry you through any difficult ones.

You are here. You are loved. And that is enough.