November 26-C, 2022

We have all heard the truism,
"Everything happens for a reason."

And the reason is always
what happened just before
the thing that happened
happened.

You had the wreck
because you were texting,
or the other driver was,
for example.

Not so that something could happen
that would not have happened
if you hadn't had the wreck.

What happens happens
because it is the result of something,
not so that it will cause something.

Whatever it causes to happen
happens not as the result of what happened
but as the result of everyone who is impacted
response to what happened.

A particular circumstance 
may cause 10,000 responses
to the circumstance.
The ripples go out eternally forever.

The world is still feeling 
the impact of my birth,
and yours.
And so with everything
that has ever happened.

Cause-and-effect
is effect-causing-causes-causing-effects
throughout the ages
with no end ever.

Everything that happens
calls for something to happen
in response to what happened,
etc., ad nauseam.

"Why did this happen to me?"
"It depends on what you do
with what happened."

What we do with what happens to us
makes all the difference.

We all are still working out the implications
our birth--in the time and place,
context and circumstances,
of our birth--
had for us and the world at large.

Nothing is ever finished.
Everything is always the cause 
of something else.

Our stories are being told forever,
expanding,
enlarging,
world without end,
always being continued
through all the generations
yet to be.

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