Things that matter

As you go through your journey, day by day, you get more responsibilities. You start seeing the new things in life, the things you didn’t know you could do, and they build-up upon you like new features. Then you start exploring success and wanting more of these features, more abilities. And each time you feel that you are making a small change, no matter the impact, you begin to feel your worth.
Until one day, these features become so big that you find it hard to get back to your core, like a computer overloaded with software, that it takes too much time finishing its basic tasks.
And then, one day, you drown in progress, it’s good, isn’t it? It’s just that you forgot the purpose, and you become a slave to the flow of things, always more good, always more success, always bigger changes. You start thinking: if the impact was not big, then I didn’t do it right.
Suddenly, nothing matters, success is just another number that you never reach, and happiness is no longer found even though you reached your goal. You look up and stare in the sky and think about life, and you never get an answer.
But you will always be lucky to have that one person who will get you out of this cycle, your friend, your soulmate, the guy next door, the cashier at the supermarket, the historical figure you always liked… One of them will remind you about the small things, the ones that triggered your journey towards success. And just one day, out of the wisdom you got but never noticed, you will figure it out.
You see? It was never about those big things, it was about the little moments, the tiny wonders that got you up all night, the passion to know more, and the thought that you never had enough. Not out of ambition, but out of passion, it was the passion that got you to run after your dreams. You never wanted to reach the big goals because you are ambitious, but because you tasted the small successes, and you wanted more. The little twists that got you surprised, the endless laughs you had with your friends, those you trusted and felt home with.
Those where in your core, before the additional features got in, back then, your computer was so fast that the entire world was enough for you. And just when you look deeply into your core, when this big world is not enough, you will see happiness, the same happiness you see in the eyes of those who matter, in the times that matter, for the things that matter.

Joe J. El Housseini