Dust and Ash

What good is scrubbing your home until it gleams, if your house outshines you?
Set your mind in order before you set your home in order.
Life is short—don't squander it on needless suffering. Live it in joy instead!

Tidy your house only as much as you must.
What does it matter what people say, if you are content?
While you still have breath, tend to your soul instead...
Paint a picture, write a poem, cook something new, take a walk with a friend. Do what your heart whispers you should do, before it's too late.

Cook what you crave, garden, drink what calls to you—wine or tea, as you wish.
Swim, climb mountains, run with dogs, listen to music, read books...
Gather with friends and lose yourself in conversation. When life ends, everything ends anyway!

Your own peace of mind matters more than the approval in others' eyes.
Don't give away everything to those who give you nothing in return.
Don't waste so much time arranging your rooms and your things
that you forget to truly know your own life.
The days that pass never come back again.

Too orderly, too perfect, too polished...
If you spend your whole life this way, know this:
When age comes and your strength begins to fade,
you'll see then that if your body can't keep up with the work,
your mind will gnaw at you with one thought alone...
Something is missing... everything is a mess... why can't I keep it together?

Instead, strengthen your heart—teach it to accept and surrender
when life's furnishings are scattered by the demands of time.
When the day comes for you to go, what remains but dust?
Let some dust settle. Save your time instead.

No one will remember where you sat or whom you fed, or who paid the bill.
Who would be foolish enough to cherish memories of your spotless rooms?
But how your friendship healed someone, how your presence lightened another's burden,
how your existence taught the world its lessons—these are what people hold close.
These alone. Nothing more.