Why are we so enamoured
By the big, the great, the moneyed,
The glamorous and the extraordinary?

And why does the small
Get dismissed, abused, or exploited?
Or be seen as something to
Be brought under our command?
Why is it subject to our derision?

Why have our thoughts been schooled
To seek out advantage, grow big and
Become great or dominating?

Why has modern man failed to assess
How he truly measures against existence?
Instead, by way of brute force
Or coercion, or war, or by way of competition
He makes every effort to overextend himself.
He toils hard to become the greatness
That he’s been educated to admire.

Are our problems rooted in this inability
To know who we are
And in compensating that fundamental ignorance
By becoming who we imagine we should be?

All that we have tried to control and domineer
All the small things that we thought
That on their own didn’t matter-
Are now through their disappearance
Threatening our own existence.

The solution isn’t to come up
With some great invention
Or some even smarter technology
The solution lies in recognising
That we exist in and because of our relationships.
Relationships sustain life.

Life cannot be controlled
It certainly cannot be grasped
Through a course of study.
And it cannot be lived well
Merely by winning advantages over others;
Or by accumulating badges and privileges.

Happiness is not the reward of a pursuit
To be happy is to be well-ordered in mind
It is to be rooted in reality
It is to know that one already has
What one imagines one needs to find.

It is to look at life with softness
It is to contact the world
not to acquire but to give.
Each is by design-
Capable and sufficient.

Before we set out to become
More than what we presently are
We must seek to understand
What we are
As we are.