All in the universe follows one basic, universal law: effect follows cause. There is no escaping this reality. No prayer, supplication, incantation, or petition can change the working of this cosmic mandate: as you sow, so also shall you reap, as you do good, so too shall good be done to you; as you are, so also shall others be to you.

This ought to be supremely comforting, for in it is found the secret to unlocking the future.

The way in which you handle today’s harvest constitutes the nature and quality of your sowing. Think about that for a minute. The way you handle your circumstances from moment to moment is reaping in one sense, but it is sowing in another. When the consequences of earlier action come knocking on your door, you have a choice: handle them gracefully, artistically, and in a dignified manner by assuming responsibility for the way in which you receive them or react to them, fret, complain, rationalize, look for a scapegoat, rebel, or run from the responsibility that you could otherwise assume.

The harvest, of course, is not always directly or even indirectly related to what you have done or left undone.

You are a part of a whole, of the body of humanity, and the decisions and actions others take will affect you in one way or another. You cannot change that, but you can change the part you play within the whole. Things may knock at the door of your present moment that you played no part in creating. You needn’t assume responsibility for their creation, but you can assume responsibility for their resolution. Even if you do not solve them, the fact that you kept your integrity in the face of them means that you didn’t get sucked into the problem. Unnecessary reaction (e.g. “Why this? Why me? Why now? It’s not my problem!”) adheres you to the problem, making it worse for the person who answers the next time it comes knocking.

If you want to change the future for the better, pay attention to the spirit in which you greet that which knocks at your door.

Photo by Egor Myznik on Unsplash