We’re here to make things happen. To create things. To be beacons of light for others—to unravel and uncover and share our discoveries for the betterment of mankind.

Sounds lofty and conceited, but it’s true.

Everyone has that potential—it’s just a matter of following the calling, believing in it, becoming it. Giving your life to it. Sacrifice. Martyrdom. Giving of yourself, sometimes more than you ever thought possible for a greater cause. Never giving up, even when those around you tell you to slow down, relax, take it easy.

For those who tend to and nurture that burning spark within themselves, the one that tells them to “keep going” “just a little bit further,” “don’t stop…,” this journey is never-ending. There is no end-point; the journey is the map, the destination is the mythical treasure.

What would happen if we took the destination out of the mix completely and just had a never-ending map? What if someone told us that there was no buried treasure at the end—that the truths and betrayals and loves and losses and exalted victories and soul-crushing defeats along the way were the real treasures, the ones that changed us, forever? The ones that made this entire struggle worthwhile—that even at the end of the most harrowing day, when we’re struggling to stay upright and can barely feed ourselves, we’re still not empty. We’ve still got that burning spark inside of us, nourishing us and filling us with an entire universe of sustenance…if we allow it.

It’s all a choice. We can choose to ignore that spark, to let it die. But then, we die. And we know it. Then our time here is wasted, because we never stepped out and took a risk and put our hearts on the line for what we knew was our truth, and what’s a life without truth? We can sleepwalk through this experience and just get by with no real passion, no real fulfillment from our work, completely devoid of the stirrings of our deepest, warmest places of creative divinity. We can be an empty vessel and turn everything else off.

We all have a choice. No choice comes without repercussions, and we all get to choose which ones we can and cannot live with. We’re all gifted with sight, with empathy, with the glorious connection to every other living being on this earth. And we’re all gifted with the ability to either enhance or destroy those gifts and ties.

Sometimes the responsibility is too great. But sometimes, if we reflect on all of the treasures we’ve gathered through our journey thus far, we realize that we’ve got all the tools to handle our tasks, and then some. Always, always, always and then some.

What happens when the road gets foggy? When you’ve accumulated so many treasures that you feel weighed down? When you’ve lost your path and no longer know what you’re working towards anymore, even though there’s that nagging feeling, that whisper of a voice inside your head gently urging you to push on? What happens when you’ve lost your way and just want to collapse at the crossroads?

That’s when the real work begins. That’s when you’ve spent enough time accumulating—that’s when you give back. And even if you don’t know which road to take or which way to go, as long as you keep going, the simple acts of moving and creating and giving will light your way.

Nothing is ever truly done, and no work is ever truly complete. We choose how far we can take our creations. We choose what we revisit and what we let go, allowing those manifestations to be exactly as they are, allowing those creations to be good enough for now.

Exhausting? Absolutely.

But nothing is ever meant to remain stagnant, and everything is subject to change.

If I’ve learned one, solid lesson so far, it’s that absolutely nothing is permanent. Practicing loving detachment is the greatest daily treasure we can give ourselves and others, because through that unconditionally loving detachment is where freedom lives. And as our energies change and grow and mix and mesh with other energies—other lights—the simple act of giving each other the freedom to explore those new (and sometimes ancient) energies is the ultimate act of unconditional love and giving unconditional love and growth.

We discover, we love, we absorb, we release, we give back.

What will you do with your treasures today?

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Ed: Brianna Bemel