the way you live reveals what you value
The way you live in the world inevitably reveals what you value.
The wider culture would have you believe what’s most valuable lies in the superlative—the bigger, the better; the more, the merrier. From the largest mansions to the speediest cars, the tallest buildings to the fattest paychecks, your life needs to be epic, grand, legendary. And this insidious conditioning trickles down into all aspects of your day-to-day living: how to do more, how to make more, how to have more, how to be more. You’re supposed to be living your best life, the hero of your own story. Your only trajectory is up.
At a certain point, you’ll start thinking about your legacy—how you want to be remembered, how you want to leave your mark. Perhaps even how to guarantee your place among history’s best and brightest. Yet of all the humans who have existed on the planet, only a fraction of a fraction of a percentage point make it into history books, and the rest are lost to time. When weighed against this scale, what chance do most of us have? And were the people you read about in history books actually happy and fulfilled?
It’s worth considering. Because on this scale, your darling animal companion wouldn’t even register. They’d be a blip, half a blink, an easily replaceable commodity. Totally unnecessary and void of value.
But you—you’re here. And that tells me quite a lot about you. Like how you’d do anything for your best friend, how they fill your day with so much joy and delight, how you wouldn’t be able to function nearly as well without this treasured relationship. How could anyone possibly measure their worth—the smiles and laughter they elicit, the generous affection they offer, the steadfast presence they provide, day after day?
You can’t. There’s not a big enough scale for what’s infinite. These animals keep us sane. They keep us laughing. They keep us loved.
You cannot look to the current culture for what’s actually important. You cannot look to the outside world to determine what you value, what makes your heart sing, what makes your life worth living. Sometimes (almost always), you have to turn away, turn inward, and go against the culture, against what you see, against what you’ve been taught. Because your truth is different, and it’s something only you can know, something that can only be found inside.
Right now, the culture is telling you what’s most important is how you look, how your life looks, how you earn a living, how much you contribute to the bottom line. Too few of us stop to question: do I really value these same things? And is placing inordinate value on the material, on the appearance of things, actually good for me? The current culture doesn’t give a damn about your little one outside of the money you spend. If you listened to the external world, if you bowed to these influences outside of you, you wouldn’t be loving (or grieving) your more-than-human friend the way you are.
That’s your heart speaking—listen. Look to the inside instead of the outside. Be your own culture. YOU tell us what’s actually important, what (and who) has true worth and value. Only then will our animals hold their rightful place in the world, as they’ve already held their rightful place in our hearts. That’s how we change: one heart at a time.
“Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.”
Let’s change the current culture together.
