No Such Thing as Wasted Time

You didn’t waste those years.
You didn’t waste that love.
You didn’t waste that season of confusion, or rest, or just getting by.

It all belongs.

Zen doesn’t divide life into useful and useless.
It welcomes the whole thing.

The pauses.
The heartbreak.
The wrong turns.
The days you felt nothing.

Even the wandering was practice.

Even the silence had something to say.

You were growing when you didn’t know it.
You were healing when you couldn’t see it.
You were practicing presence
simply by surviving.

There is no such thing as wasted time
when you return to it with awareness.

What you thought was delay
was a lesson in gentleness.

What you thought was failure
was a chance to listen deeper.

What you thought was loss
was space being made for what’s next.

You don’t have to rush to redeem it.
You don’t have to spin it into something profound.

You just have to let it be part of the story.

Because it is.

Because you’re here.
Still breathing.
Still waking up.
Still choosing to be present.

And that means it wasn’t wasted.

Even your waiting was sacred.
Even your numbness had roots.
Even your mistakes made room for grace.

You are not late.
You are not behind.
You are not broken.

You are here.

And here is where it all begins again.