What Consumes You, And What Is Left?

We cannot not behave within the world.

Each of our behaviors consumes something of us. It affects our way of being within the world. It consumes the time of our lives.

Time is the great ravisher and consumer.

What remains?

When you’ve given yourself to a task, an activity, a person, what is left?

Are you better for the transaction? Are you depleted somehow?

We must become stewards of ourselves within the world. We aren’t merely handed the world as we perceive it. Our perception is shaped by the history of our actions within the world. We’re able to see more affordances and options when we’ve historically engaged in a way that cultivates them. Or we perceive obstacles if we’ve squandered our capacity.

As the grains of sand descend in the hourglass downward, down toward earth, down toward stasis, down toward rest, what does time make of you?

Originally appeared on The Ecosomatics Institute Blog