There are No Little Things: The Universe is the Result of Your Choices

Your smallest choices affect the very nature of existence

Consider the countless lives you might have led. One where you never crossed paths with your love. Another without siblings. Maybe one where you chose an entirely different career, or where fate took a far crueler turn.

The story of your existence could have unfurled in endless directions. When you weigh the infinitely improbable course of events that brought you here reading these specific words in this precise moment, it can leave you awestruck.

“Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from the littlest of things, I’m tempted to believe there are no little things.” — Bruce Barton

You’re afraid of making the wrong decisions, but the truth is this: the most inconsequential of actions will influence the course of the rest of your life, and you cannot control it. So many variables play a part in your being here today: a delayed flight, one more cup of coffee, the number of seconds your parents took to cross the street, the brief glance your future love gives you from across a crowded room.

This is Chaos Theory. Physics, mathematics…sensitivity to the power of that which seems meaningless and mundane. You’re not here by chance. Every choice you have ever made has led to this moment, reading these words. While you exist, every movement and every moment matters more than you can possibly imagine.

Those dark days and darker nights that led you to some of the best times of your life, if you were to play it all back and watch the story of your life in rewind. The people you met because you lingered on instead of leaving early, the car accidents you avoided by answering a text before starting your car.

Every single decision we make, every door we walk through or conversation we have will echo throughout the universe like so many ripples across the still surface of an endless pond. When I choose to stay home and enjoy a book instead of going out for a drink, I have added to and defined the universe’s story.

We are relatively young compared to the rest of the universe, existing as simply the latest chapter in the book. But we are adding to the cosmic narrative and shaping the direction of the plot nonetheless.

Though it might feel as if we are but humble extras in the grand plot, I consider it a not-so-insignificant honor to contribute my infinitesimal dialogue to the greatest book of all time. Every object of mass distorts space-time around it, no matter how small and insignificant. So just by existing, we are, each of us, affecting the fabric of the reality we exist in.

“Well-being is realized by small steps, but is truly no small thing.”

— Zeno of Citium

To each of us, our life is our universe. Some expand their universe for power, some for wisdom. What matters is knowing your place within their universe, and theirs within yours. Are you a galaxy, or dead space? For whatever we hold dear, proximity has little power over. Pay attention to how many light years they travel in their mind to you, and how often they gravitate toward you.

There are those I’ve had the honor of knowing and those I’ve had the gift of loving. For them, I like to think that in a hundred lifetimes on a thousand worlds, I would always find my way to their side. Gods and gravity be damned. But that’s my story, and some memories are just for me, no one else. Let’s get back to you, dear reader. What chapters have you yet to write into the annals of existence?

You are the result of thousands of ancestors surviving against all odds. Now multiply those odds by countless generations for 200,000 years, against the likelihood of each of them making the exact choices that led to your parents meeting. Out of that infinite chaos of unpredictability, it was you that was born. The pinnacle of improbability.

Imagine if you ceased to exist. Oh, the universe would notice, my friend. The mess that would make. The hearts and hopes and dreams that would break. The steps taken and not taken, the choices made differently because of your absence. So stick around and enjoy the wonder of it all. Stay for bad choices, stay for great ones.

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