It matters

  I read a comment left by a friend on Facebook. He simply said, "sometimes you feel like you just don't matter" and it was a statement I can empathize with. Knowing this man, I understood it was just a statement of the way he was feeling at that moment. I understood I didn't need to launch an intervention, call for a counselor, or encourage him to seek medical help. My response was simply, I know the feeling. He was simply thinking about something. No telling what it could be, could be a lot of things.

 But that comment did leave me thinking a bit. Do we matter? It isn't an easy question to answer. The solution lies in defining what matters. Does what happen matter to us, or to others? I think the majority of the time when we feel like we just don't matter, we are feeling like we aren't being heard. Well, it isn't that we aren't heard, it is others aren't taking our advice. We do say, I hear you, often when we don't agree with what was said. It's a polite way of disagreeing. After writing these blogs on mine, these discussions with myself, I often wonder, does it matter. The answer is, matters to me and may be an amusement to others. It would be great if they mattered to others though. 

 The feeling that we matter is dependent upon the influence we exert upon others. If you care, are genuinely concerned for the happiness and wellbeing of others, it could be no other way. When we feel like we haven't done that, we have failed in some way, we get that feeling, I don't matter. It is difficult to see the trees for the forest at times. And that is what we all are, a single tree in a forest of humanity. It needs to be remembered that every single grain of sand is required to make the beach. Each one matters. Scientifically speaking matter is made up of atoms. There are only 118 atoms known to man. Those 118 are combined in various configurations to create molecules. Each atom matters. Each atom is matter.

 So yeah, we all matter. It's true even when we don't feel like it. Doesn't make us feel any better about it though. So, we are left with the question, what does matter? I'll quote one of my favorite old people, Epictetus "It's not what happens to you, but how you react to what happens that matters" I'd say maintaining personal integrity is what really matters. Make no compromises for fame nor fortune. Neither of those will last forever. It is the compromises we make that leave us empty of meaning. When we feel like we don't mean anything, we feel like we don't matter. The biggest issue is in attempting to understand the meaning. You don't need to know that, just know it matters.