Currie's Gratitude 13 December 2014

In the end, people don't view their life as merely the average of all its moments—which, after all, is mostly nothing much plus some sleep. For human beings, life is meaningful because it is a story. A story has a sense of a whole, and its arc is determined by the significant moments, the ones where something happens. Measurements of people's minute-by-minute levels of pleasure and pain miss this fundamental aspect of human existence. A seemingly happy life maybe empty. A seemingly difficult life may be devoted to a great cause. We have purposes larger than ourselves.   [Atul Gawande, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End]

For some time Now I have gently but distinctly mocked the phrase, in the end.  I have put away my clipboards and checklists and chosen to live in the moments as they unfold, learning and discovering amazing things all the while.

Now, or at least in this moment, I see new hope in this phrase. It has BEcome a foundation, my foothold on Life. I realise that I am living this story and there is nothing more or less that I can DO but make space for my story[ies] to live and breathe.

I BElieve we DO have “purposes larger than ourselves” and that even I am fulfilling mine.

I love you, Currie