DW's Blog

What Do You Have To Show For Your Years?

by DW Green — December 14, 2021

One day our hours begin to run out.

How long have you been alive? Take the years, multiple them by 365, and then by 24. How many hours have you lived (me-613,200 hours)? What do you have to show for all of them?The answer for many people is not enough. We had so many hours that we took them for granted. All we have to show for our time on this planet are rounds of golf, years spent at the office, time spent watching mediocre movies, a stack of mindless books we hardly remember reading, and maybe a garage full of toys. We’re like the character in Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye: “Mostly, I just kill time,” he says, “and it dies hard.”One day our hours begin to run out. It would be nice to be able to say: “Hey, I really made the most of it.” Not in the form of achievements, not money, not status, but in wisdom, insight, and real progress in the things that all humans struggle against.What if you could say that you really made something of this time that you had? What if you could prove ...

by DW Green — December 8, 2021

If you were suddenly told you had but a week to live, what changes would you make?

We have an irrational fear of acknowledging our own mortality. We avoid thinking about it because we think it will be depressing. In fact, reflecting on mortality often has the opposite effect—invigorating us more than saddening us. Why? Because it gives us clarity.If you were suddenly told you had but a week to live, what changes would you make? If you died but were resuscitated, how different would your perspective be? When as Shakespeare’s Prospero puts it, “every third thought shall be my grave,” there’s no risk of getting caught up in petty matters or distractions. Instead of denying our fear of death, let’s let it make us the best people we can be.Today.

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by DW Green — November 24, 2021

See the light in others and treat them as if that is all you see.

“To live a life of gratitude is to open our eyes to the countless ways we are supported by the world around us.” ― Gregg KrechGratitude may not change what’s happening in life, but gratitude will change your relationship with it.When we learn to feel gratitude with a full heart, we are learning to love unconditionally. Living this divine love is living in grace. See the light in others and treat them as if that is all you see.Be patient and loving with every fearful thought. Practice observing your fears as a witness, and you’ll see them dissolve.I am filled with the irrevocable truth that everything-there-is is wherever we are.Intend to see the hidden beauty of all that exists—it then reveals itself.Appreciating what we take for granted helps develop a grateful disposition....

by DW Green — November 17, 2021

Every person is born with a death sentence. Each second that passes by is one you’ll never get back.

Have you ever heard some ask: “What would you do if you found out tomorrow that you had cancer?” The question is designed to make you consider how different life might be if you were suddenly given just a few months or weeks to live. There’s nothing like a terminal illness to wake people up.But here’s the thing: you already have a terminal diagnosis. We all do! As the writer Edmund Wilson put it, “Death is one prophecy that never fails.” Every person is born with a death sentence. Each second that passes by is one you’ll never get back.Once you realize this, it will have a profound impact on what you do, say, and think. Don’t let another day tick away in ignorance of the reality that you’re a dying person. We all are. Can today be the day we stop pretending otherwise?

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by DW Green — October 20, 2021

The universe is in a constant state of change.

In Plutarch’s Life of Theseus, he describes how the ship of Theseus, an Athenian hero, was preserved by the people of Athens in battle-ready condition for many centuries. Each time a board decayed, it would be replaced until eventually every stick of wood in it had been replaced. Plutarch asks: Is it still the ship of Theseus, or is it a new one?In Japan, a famous ship Shinto shrine is rebuilt every twenty-three years. It’s gone through more than sixty of those cycles. Is it one shrine, 1,400 years old? Or sixty consecutive shrines? Even the U.S. Senate, given its staggered elections, could be said to have never been fully turned over. Is it the same body formed in the days of George Washington?Our understanding of what something is is just a snapshot—an ephemeral opinion. The universe is in a constant state of change. Our nails grow and are cut and keep growing. New skin replaces dead skin. Old memories are replaced by...

by DW Green — October 13, 2021

Unexpected events can be good as well as bad/

The novelist Cormac McCarty was living in a motel room when he heard a knock at the door. It was a messenger—he’d been awarded the Macarthur “genius” grant and $250,000. Unexpected events can be good as well as bad.Who could dream of such an unexpected twist? Who but Clotho, one of the three Greek goddesses fate, who “spins” the thread of human life? To the ancients she was the one who decided the course of the events of our lives—some good, some bad. As the playwright Aeschylus wrote, “When the gods send evil, one cannot escape it.” The dame was true for great destiny and good fortune.Their resigned attitude might seem strange to us today, but they understood who was really in control (not them, not us!). No amount of prosperity, no amount of difficultly, is certain or forever. A triumph becomes a trial, a trial becomes a triumph. Life can change in an instant. Remember, today, how often it does.