There are so many ways that I had wanted to begin this piece, all of them much too cliché. Even so, all quotes are deeply true. The times we live in are incredible. Make of that what you will, incredibly good, incredibly bad, incredibly astounding, or asinine. All incredible, nevertheless.
Over the past 11 days, I have been awe-struck by our mission back to the moon. When I say “our,” I mean humans. I have been watching NASA’s live streams, reading social media posts, you name it. And during this time, I am also preparing for my first major surgery.
It leaves one with a mix of emotions. Life is so deeply and incredibly beautiful. We humans are so blessed and so advanced- that is, if we choose to be. You see, I have been learning a lot about narrative therapy. How empowering it is to learn how we interpret different words and to reflect on our own relationship with them. When you realize that the way you view the words shame, overwhelm, and content may not be the same way someone else does, it shows how important taking our time and working on communication really is.
Your way of communicating may not always align with how I interpret things, and the same goes in reverse. Because of that, it naturally requires a bit more thought and patience, which can slow the pace of understanding—something that can feel challenging in a world increasingly driven by the expectation of instant gratification.
This is only a small percentage, though, of what could lead to more kindness in our world. Regardless of our way of arriving at more kindness, though, I do believe it all begins in the way that we think- or even the lack of thinking.
Simultaneously, I have witnessed great beauty through our recent space travels. The awe of the fact that we are this rare floating oasis in this vast, what seems to be almost nothingness. The fact that we have land, grass, trees, animals, insects, humans, and food. It is almost unfathomable, like we are some made-up fairy tale ourselves.
And yet, we can also be unendingly ugly. Humans can be cruel in ways we easily recognize, such as harming animals and abandoning them when they are no longer convenient.
We also poison the land that feeds us and the water that sustains us.
We take more than we need, simply because we can. But our ugliness does not end in the obvious. You see, we turn away from suffering when it is inconvenient to acknowledge.
We scroll past pain, we hear cruelty in a room, and choose silence to protect our own comfort. We reduce people to labels so we don’t have to feel their humanity. We judge lives we have never lived and speak on things we have never taken the time to understand.
We discard people the moment they no longer serve a purpose in our lives.
We withhold kindness to feel powerful.
We weaponize words—subtle, quiet cuts that leave no visible wound but linger far longer.
We lie—not always to deceive others, but to avoid facing ourselves.
We betray our own values in small, daily ways, then justify it as survival.
We litter—not just the earth, but shared spaces, conversations, relationships—
leaving behind fragments of disregard for others to carry, bleeding our old wounds on new people.
We consume endlessly—attention, resources, validation—
rarely stopping to ask what we are giving in return.
We forget gratitude.
We treat the extraordinary as ordinary until nothing feels sacred.
We ignore the lonely.
We overlook the quiet.
We fail to see the invisible labor of those who keep our lives functioning.
We choose convenience over conscience. Comfort over courage and distraction over awareness.
And perhaps most quietly—
we abandon ourselves.
We silence our own inner voice, ignore our own needs, and then move through the world disconnected, unable to offer others what we no longer give to ourselves.
We are better than this; all it comes down to is choice. We can choose beauty; there is a sacred Diné phrase: “Hózhóógo naasháa doo,” which means “I will walk in beauty.”
Many years ago, I shared this prayer on Facebook, which my old high school choir teacher read and was deeply inspired by and created it into music. Instead of sharing the prayer here for you to read, I encourage you to listen to it made into music. Let it fill your heart, and let today be the day that you choose to walk The Beauty Way.
Original article: https://ladyannselene23.substack.com/p/the-unfathomable-fairy-tale-humanitys