Why a life of profusion matters
The Cup We’re Given
Imagine life as a cup placed in our hands. Some cups are long-stemmed, others simple clay. Some are ornate, others plain. We don’t choose the vessel. But we do choose how we fill it.
A cup left empty at the end of life is a tragedy. The question is: will we fill it with a rich profusion of experiences, values, and loves, or will we let it stand half-empty, untasted?
Living in Profusion
Filling our cup means saying yes to life. Not recklessly, not without discernment, but with an attitude of abundance.
- Traveling not just to see places, but to feel astonishment.
- Creating not just to achieve, but to bring something new into existence.
- Loving not just cautiously, but deeply enough to risk heartbreak.
Profusion is not about excess. It is about depth and breadth — the willingness to live wide and deep rather than narrow and shallow.
The Enemy of Emptiness
What keeps cups empty? Often it is fear — fear of failure, fear of change, fear of discomfort. Sometimes it is inertia — the slow slide into routines that keep us safe but stagnant.
We also waste cups by filling them with what doesn’t nourish: distractions, petty pursuits, borrowed dreams. We can live busy lives and still die with empty cups.
Filling requires intention. It asks us to pause and ask: what belongs in this cup? What will I be glad to have tasted when time runs out?
At the Banquet of Life
Picture a banquet table groaning with food. Some guests sample widely, savoring flavors, mixing sweet and savory, laughing with delight. Others pick at one dish nervously, never venturing beyond what they know.
At the end of the evening, who has lived more fully? The ones who embraced profusion.
Life offers a banquet every day. It would be a waste to leave the table barely touched.
Profusion and Mortality
Mortality sharpens the call to fill our cups. If life were endless, we could delay, refuse, dabble forever. But because it isn’t, the time to taste is now.
This doesn’t mean living recklessly. It means recognizing that delay is itself a choice. That “someday” may never arrive. That the cup will one day be taken from our hands.
Profusion is reverence. It is the refusal to squander our brief chance.
How Profusion Looks
Filling our cup doesn’t require exotic adventures. It shows up in everyday choices:
- Saying yes to a walk in the rain.
- Taking the time to learn something new.
- Opening ourselves to new friendships.
- Letting art or music stir us.
- Laughing wholeheartedly.
Profusion is less about geography than about posture. It is the stance of openness to life.
The Balance
Profusion doesn’t mean cramming everything in. It means choosing richness over emptiness, quality over safety, variety over monotony.
Sometimes it means slowing down to savor, not racing ahead. Sometimes it means saying no to the trivial so we can say yes to the profound.
Filling is not frantic consumption. It is deliberate abundance.
Practices for Filling
- Say one new yes each week. Try something, meet someone, read differently.
- Cut trivial fillers. Notice distractions that don’t nourish, and let them go.
- Name your banquet. List experiences, values, or relationships you want to taste before time runs out.
- Savor what’s already there. Filling isn’t only future-oriented. It’s appreciating the cup as it fills now.
Closing Thought
We don’t control the length of our cup. But we do control how we fill it.
To leave it empty is to waste the rarest gift. To fill it with richness is to honor existence itself.
So embrace profusion. Taste widely, love deeply, create boldly.
When the cup is taken from your hands, let it be full to the brim.
