What really matters?
It's hard to know. At one point one thing really matters, and a moment later something else becomes really important. What ends up happening is our attention shoots from there to there to there, and it wears us out.
So what does matter?
It seems that what matters is what connects in our hearts. Much of what we're used to experiencing is in our heads. Like the quick flash or a jolt that gives us some adrenalin. But the things that matter reach us deeper. In that connection, there's a quietness. There's a peacefulness that allows us to stop and enjoy something in a way that satisfies us.
For myself, I know I have that experience when I take out my guitar. Or I look up at a really big tree. Or the sun crosses my face.
The nice thing is that it feels like it's reached me; a deeper part of myself. I do have the experience during the day where something's really flashy, and it's like "Oh wow, look at that!" but a few seconds later the experience is gone and I feel kind of hollow. I've found that it's easy to get caught up in that stuff because that's a lot of what the world is about.
But I've noticed that being out of town in a different city, and soon to be starting a vision quest, I can feel myself drawn to finding and experiencing things that really matter to me. And I'm encouraged by all my experiences with my clients, because they've dug themselves out of this clutter graveyard of things that were just a flash in the pan for them and have now lost any kind of experience of joy. They got rid of these things and then felt an honest peacefulness that consciously made them feel satisfied.
I can see in my own experience, that's what matters to me too.