I don’t know why we live or die, whether that’s necessary or contingent. But I will tell my students this: Life and death are all or nothing. When you die, it’s done, the chance is gone. So when you live? When you live, make it all. Don’t wait for the rain to stop. Climb out of your tent with your mind engaged and your senses ablaze and let rain pour into you. Remember: you are not who you think you are. You are what you do. Be the kindness of soft rain. Be the beauty of light behind a tall fir. Be gratitude. Be gladness.

~

How should a person live in a world that erupts catastrophically, sliding down and down? Here’s what I will try to do: Especially when I’m grieving, to listen for wrens. When I listen to wrens, to accept that death has shaped their song. To know both the inevitability of change and the urgency of continued life, the power of the Earth that flows out from its center and gathers all life back into its fold. And especially when I’m caught in my human-scaled sense of time and significance, to know that my life is part of the endless flow of fiery rock.