Marcel Winatschek

Everything Is Your Life

Sweetheart, I want you to know on your eighteenth birthday that I mean every word of this: I hope you reach everything you’ve set your sights on. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Be proud of what you’ve already built. And when the sky fills up with dark clouds—because it will, and they’ll feel permanent when they do—remember there are people who think about you and will stand with you through whatever comes. I’m one of them.

Dōgen Eihei, the thirteenth-century Zen master, put it better than I ever could: Everything is your life. Day and night, whatever you encounter, is your life; therefore you should align your life to the situation you encounter in this moment. Use your life force to create a unity with your life from the circumstances that come to you and place things in their right position.

All my love, Marcel.