The most poignant line in my morning saying reads simply:

“My purpose: to contribute to the universe.”

What does this mean? Honestly, this was somewhat vague to me, even though I recite it to myself daily, but I’ve thought about it more deeply.

To contribute means you are not simply a consumer. Anyone can eat and sleep and consume and be entertained and take from the world. Anyone can consume resources, consume energy, consume life on a basic, meaningless level. Anyone can stagnantly live.

But to contribute is to offer something, to build something with your life force. We are alive in this universe and we can shape the matter around us to create, to build something of value.

So to contribute to this universe is to use this short, finite life afforded to us to build something valuable to the universe, to create something useful for humankind, to be a net positive in the global ecosystem of our planet.

This is why we are here: to contribute to this reality we call the universe.