The Last Gifts of the Universe

by Riley August

Our existence, whether you believe it is spiritually ordained or an outcome of evolution, is unified under the term life. Plants are alive. Bugs are alive. Snakes...ah, but how I wish it weren’t so...snakes are alive. Life, movement, existence—this is what unites us with everything. With every species in the stars that we have not discovered, with our friends, our lovers, our bondmates, our families, our pets, and our enemies. We are all alive. It is the single greatest and most important unifying experience we all share.

I love this so much, I am going to try to remember this daily and have more compassion for everyone and everything

Death comes for us all. Even suns die. Galaxies die. One day, the universe will die.

Death, like life, is the great unifier. We may not go all at once, but we all go together.

I hope you one day recognize grief’s beauty, learn to live with the shadows, to understand that the only reason they could be so dark is because they were cast by so much light.