It is easy to look at this and think in big, dramatic terms about collapse, decline, or the end of things. But what does that kind of looking actually do to us? It pulls our attention away from where we have influence. It keeps our nervous systems braced for a future we cannot control. Over time, that drains the energy we would need to stay steady, connected, and effective right here, where our actions actually matter.

Part of what feeds cynicism is not just pain, but a narrowing of the arena in which pain is encountered. When suffering is held only inside the human sphere, inside social systems, histories, betrayals, injustices, and personal loss, it becomes unbearable. Not because we are actually isolated, but because suffering is held inside too small a field. No wider field to hold it. No intelligence large enough to metabolize it.

We no longer ask "What is this teaching me?" but "What's wrong with me for feeling it?"

There is nothing more ordinary than relationship, and nothing more sacred. Every moment of contact, each glance, misunderstanding, or pause between words, is life reaching through us to meet itself. We are never outside of it. Even silence is a form of contact. Even withdrawal leaves a shape in our lives.

All of us belong to the miracle. We benefit greatly by releasing our attempts at being in the driver's seat and letting ourselves be danced by the terrifying wisdom that is more ancient and extraordinary than even the greatest mystics among us can grasp.