no feeling is final

One thing is certain: at many points over the next few years you will feel the world spin as it changes all around you. At times, it feels like there’s no firm ground to stand on. Grasping at past or spending time dreaming of the future will only lead to suffering.

Day dreaming takes time. Although it is cathartic at times. It is better to act. You are made from the small everyday decisions you make and the actions taken. All constructed identities and fantasies, no matter how elaborate, eventually thin.

In the current culture there’s a tendency to act in extremes. People distract themselves through attachment to something external - careers, other people, identities. It is possible for years to feel like days when you're enamored with something or someone. When you are caught up in the micro of life, and trying to optimize every little thing (eg. min-maxxing, max-maxxing), it can feel rewarding. However, your humanity wasn't meant to be optimized. People wake up from your fixation and realize they've lost years to something or someone else.

On the other end, there's a tendency to withdraw. Escape life's everyday tribulations and refuse to play, and instead choosing to waste away into frivolous activities. This also wears thin, and once it does you realize life has passed you by.

Above all, maintain tempo. Live with a certain pace. Do not let it pass. Do not wait. Push yourself to go out of your comfort zone. Participate in life in all its seasons and stages. Reach the checkpoints. Surf the uncertainty. Act on impulse and grasp opportunity:

“There is a tide in the affairs of men Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat; And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures.”

– William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

Life is to be experienced. Do no let your emotions atrophy. Make mistakes, and learn. Have faith that there’s a plan for you. You are the author of your destiny. From moment to moment you are a new person. Be kind to yourself and others, and move through life with grace and self-respect.

And remember, no feeling is final:

Go to the Limits of Your Longing

Written by Rainer Maria Rilke

Translated and read by Joanna Macy

God speaks to each of us as he makes us, then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall, go to the limits of your longing. Embody me.

Flare up like a flame and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final. Don’t let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life. You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.

– Book of Hours, I 59