Reflection.

We are all just rats in a maze. Released into this world without direction-knowing only one thing-inevitably we must reach our end. Some of us terror and stay in one spot, others rush past searching for this other side but they get lost, and then there's the rest...the rest of us who take our time, we over-think and carefully chart our next move. Each rat will reach their end in one way or another. Those that cower will die without experience-they will have never seen what beauty could lie around the next corner, the lost rat will suffer the anxiety of knowing they set out with high expectations but remain lost dying in a dead end somewhere, and the rest of us; though we might reach the finish, would we have had time to notice what we were passing by? Or would we have been too consumed in thought with only that one purpose in mind-how do I get there and which way is the right way? I wonder…does the right way even matter? For all of us the outcome is the same, we are going to die; it’s our test, but it’s our decision to figure what we will experience until we do.

Mice are much cuter than rats, I’m a girly girl, I don’t want a thick long tail-or greasy black fur. I’d rather be one of those cute little mice with brown fur & little beady eyes. So pretend for a second that you’re this mouse. In your world you search for food & you collect things for your nest. You’ll scamper through the streets picking up garbage left behind, bits of thread, twigs; you’ll need something soft like a piece of fabric torn off of a jacket or a dirty, solitary sock for comfort. You will separately carry all of these things back to your hole and make what you can of it. You will mate, reproduce, then your children will grow and scurry away & you will remain in your hole with your collections, surviving on whatever food you can find. Once the mouse grows old and dies, soon the collections you’ve kept your entire life will be carried away by the wind and none other than your family will ever know what those things meant to you or how hard you worked to gain them.

If you think about it we are not that much different from the mouse. We build a life for ourselves by working so we can own things, different from the mouse; we buy what we collect. The things we own (or are working to own) surround our families-but when we’re gone things we cherished will be divided amongst our close relatives or in figurative words become dust and fly away with the wind.

It’s awfully depressing but I can’t help but consider what the point is. I love my home and I have an entire closet full of things I’ve collected throughout my life that typically only have meaning to me, clutter really. The things and the people that are important to me I will continue to collect and keep. Back to the rats in a maze, you’ve got to see it really doesn’t matter what you do with your life. Whatever race you are, religion you follow, your marital status, hobbies you have, talents you possess, mistakes you make, whether you’re rich & famous, gorgeous or not- it does not matter because the outcome for all of us is the same. You can’t dwell on what you don’t have; it’s just a waste of your time. The only thing that will change is this experience until you draw to a close. We’ve all been given a chance to live, so live- exist! If you’re scared to live you’ll never see the beauty of it all, if you drown yourself in high expectations you’ll die unhappy in a dead end, and if you spend too much time practicing perfect & over thinking your decisions you’ll miss out on what really matters.

If I were dropped in a maze, I’d walk slow seeing everything around me, and take it all in.