Origins

It’s a wonder that today is the way it is.

The answer to an equation that multiplies millions of days with billions of people and trillions of decisions.

As if watching every butterfly that ever has been born, is born, or will be flap its wings at the same moment,

and getting caught in the hurricane that ensues.

But people aren’t like butterflies.

We’re like the lights that moths are attracted.

Some of us glow just enough to entice vermin before a final zap shocks the life away.

Hurting everyone who comes close.

Others light up rooms or flicker like candles in frosty windows.

Some are the flashlight hidden under the blanket illuminating a book far past one’s bedtime.

Yet, despite all our diversity and quantity, we haven’t found the limit that one can shine.

For as some dim, buried under avalanches of burden and worry,

there are those who light the world.

Casting aside shadow so that the rest of us can see living for what it truly is.

A journey with infinite outcomes stemming from infinite origins,

all bundled together nicely in brown craft paper and a twine bow,

in the vessel we call our one and only life.

Allowing us to decide where we wish to step next.

Because no matter where we start our journey,

whether from twenty paces back or twenty million.

The final destination will only ever be as bright,

as we are.