I could live in this coffeehouse. Kids and dogs playing on the lawn, laughter and conversation on the comfy couches inside. Art on the walls. Board games being played. Food, coffee and pretty cocktails. I drove up late in the day, and I could feel myself relaxing. It’s been a tense few weeks, and I know more is to come.

When you lose a foundational pillar on the house you’ve worked so hard to build, it’s a shock to the system. It’s especially disconcerting when it feels like the last pillar of several that once held up your structure. As I was watching people speak about losing their homes in the recent California fires, it took on new meaning to me to hear them talk about what remained. People always say, “What’s important is that we still have each other. The things don’t matter. We will rebuild.” I’ve always seen the wisdom in that perspective, but it hits different now. Especially since what we lost was not the things, but the people. What’s left after that?

And yet, somehow, the instinct to rebuild is strong.

So, what will it look like? I did an exercise with Chat GPT today wherein you write down all your future goals and what you’d ideally like to see in the world, and you pose this question to AI: “Tell me a story of a day in the life of my future self, based on this description.” I threw everything in there, no matter how outlandish or out of reach it appears to be at the moment. The narrative it came up with was pretty stunning I must say. (Maybe AI is going to take my job after all!)

I think the real power in the story was that it was written as if all the things I want in my future were already true. As if the hard and frightening things we face right now were already behind us. As if the things that are only a promise and a dream have already been made manifest. It showed me clearly what I’d salvage from my house after the fire. I’ll keep the specific details to myself for now, but the story ended like this:

As you close your eyes, a deep sense of gratitude washes over you. Your life is rich with meaning, laughter and love. Tomorrow holds new adventures, but for now, you rest, content and joyful, ready to embrace another beautiful day.

How’s that for an ending? I thought to myself, “Really? Even in my current circumstances? Even with all that’s happened?”

And He whispered, “Yes.”

We were made for utter happiness. And I see that the life I want in the future - rich with meaning, laughter and love - actually already exists for me in this very day, in this very moment. In this very coffeehouse, while the rest of the world rages outside. The love that I’ve been given is a rich inheritance that lives on. It’s the golden thread that runs through the entire fabric of this life. It’s how our past comes into the present and lives on into our future. It’s how those whom we’ve loved and have loved us continue to be part of our todays and tomorrows.

Nothing is lost.