A visit in a strange land

"In man's life his time is a mere instant, his existence a flux, his perception fogged, his whole bodily composition rotting, his mind a whirligig, his fortune unpredictable, his fame unclear. To put it shortly: all things of the body stream away like a river, all things of the mind are dreams and delusion; life is warfare, and a visit in a strange land; the only lasting fame is oblivion.

What then can escort us on our way? One thing, and one thing only: philosophy. This consists in keeping the divinity within us inviolate and free from harm, master of pleasure and pain, doing nothing without aim, truth, or integrity, and independent of others' action or failure to act. Further, accepting all that happens and is allotted to it as coming from that other source which is its own origin: and at all times awaiting death with the glad confidence that it is nothing more than the dissolution of the elements of which every living creature is composed. Now if there is nothing fearful for the elements themselves in their constant changing of each into another, why should one look anxiously in prospect at the change and dissolution of them all? This is in accordance with nature: and nothing harmful is in accordance with nature."

Marcus Aurelius - Meditations, book two, 17

Life Within, Life Without

I believe we urge to feel connected to Life. We feel that connection when we belong, when we connect to others, either humans, animals or nature. When we feel that what we give is beneficial, accepted, when we interact, play. We also feel that connection when we experience flow in any activity.

The opposites are stagnation, the absence of flow, or isolation, the absence of connection, even rejection. The Life within us urges to connect to the Life without us.