This time of year (in the Northern hemisphere, at least) hits a bunch of us pretty hard, and those of us with one mental illness or another typically get hit harder. I’m slowly coming out of a pretty bad bout. It doesn’t help that there’s a lot going on in the world to be depressed about (that is, for those of us who have empathy and strive for a better world for all our neighbours). It’s easy to get swallowed up in it, which is a goal for those few who seek to break our spirits and see us as nothing more than expendable resources to be exploited. It’s hard to fight against tyranny without the will to do so, after all.
I’m currently sitting up in my bed as I type this, musing over a fit of depression that started a few weeks ago (it comes and goes). A thought popped into my head that helped clear my head. The fact is, we could all be snuffed out in a moment’s notice. There are any number of disasters - natural and man-made alike - that would take us out in an instant, and there’s little to nothing we could do to stop them. In a vast, uncaring universe full of danger and chaos, we’re fortunate to be breathing at all, let alone have time to mourn about the state of our world and our place in it. That’s all the more reason to cherish the gift of sentience, to embrace the moment, to find joy in the everyday. Having said all that, I’m typing this all out while being comfortable in my bed. I’m not on the run in a war torn environment or some other nightmare situation. As I said, the universe is uncaring and chaotic, and even if we were all at peace with each other, trouble would still come our way in the form of natural disasters and the like. All I’m saying is, sometimes, it’s important to just breathe and understand the value of that breath. Millenia of evolution produced us, and it’d be a shame to let that go to waste.
If you’re reading this, know that your presence is a gift to existence itself. You are the product of not just evolution, but some of the most profound happenings of the cosmos. Don’t waste it. Breathe.
