Each one of us has a little story—and the issue becomes, what is our little story? What story would you tell, that would be your story? You, being alive on the face of this earth—I know, in one way, it is the most mundane thing to you. You’re alive. “So, big deal.”

What keeps you alive? Do you have any idea? This breath coming in and going out is an incredible miracle that takes place, right under your nose! A little air, (everywhere, but you don’t see it), comes into you, brings you something. Leaves—gone! Comes again, comes again, comes again.

How did your life begin? With the first breath coming in. How will your life end? With the last breath going out. Not coming in—out. In between it coming in, and going out, there is a story. There’s a story.

Today, I was watching this boat race going on. So I pulled out my camera, tsuk-tsuk-tsuk-tsuk, tsuk-tsuk-tsuk-tsuk…. And, I’m taking these pictures, you know? They were nice—nice pictures.

And there’s a story! “Somebody won; somebody loses; somebody this, somebody that, somebody tries hard.” Two boats had to pull aside, because they dropped out of the race; maybe they had problems—there’s a story!

But I think there’s a story of stories between that breath that came in—and then that breath that went out. There’s a story. There’s an amazing story—and it’s your story. And it’s the only story that you know is your story. And it’s going to keep on unfolding till that last breath.

So, “So far, so good?” That’s the question: your story. You have to write it. Do you get to tell it? Do you get to tell it? Yes. To whom? To you. To you, whilst you can listen. And it’s not ended, till it has.

For billions and billions and billions of years, nature worked on making you be. To bring about this earth, take the dirt, (of which there is plenty out there); compress it so it can be—to the oceans, to the volcanoes, to the rain, to everything, so that you could be!

You are alive; this is your story: write it well. Articulate it well. This is not the monkey story; this is your story, the story of a human being who is alive. Not, was. “Once upon a time, there is a human being. There is a human being.”

– Prem Rawat