What does success mean to me? 2023 06 12


We got news last week that Mom's health is declining from an additional challenge. We have been processing the news in our quiet way, going about the routines of each day, knowing that our time is limited by cycles of life and death beyond our control. What does success mean to you? For me, historically, it meant that I was going to do something exceptional, that I would be famous, that I would be wealthy, that my work would be seen as exemplary of high human achievement. Today I am re-calibrating what success means to me. It is not about some exalted, grandiose intervention that will change the course of human history. No. It is about looking after my Mom in her final days and learning about worms, microorganisms, soil, and growing food in shaded gardens. These might seem like disconnected endeavours, but it turns out they are intimately bonded. Today success means being inquisitive, constant, and kind. It means understanding the depth of life forces and the breadth of life forms. It is attending to Mom's needs throughout the day, and checking to see how my worms are growing. Today success means living with a long life coming to an end, and new life emerging in the soil. It means living with both of these dimensions and holding them gently in my heart. It means deepening my understanding of cycles of life and death, and accepting the inevitable - that our human lives will end and life (and life giving plants) will emerge from the soil. Huh. The caregiver has arrived to give Mom her bath and the worms are busy in their habitat.


The worms are starting to migrate up into the second floor of their apartment building. There is fresh food up there.

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