The Cycle – Consumer and Producer

Are we here just to consume and produce,
to be engines of endless need and noise?
Or is there something quieter, softer—
something we forgot to seek?

We are born into a rhythm
that sounds like progress,
but feels like pressure.

Consume. Produce. Consume again.
The heartbeat of a world that never sleeps.

We eat more than food.
We devour each other—
in the name of love,
in the name of family,
in the name of belonging.

We consume ideas,
scrolling thoughts until our own grow silent.
We consume nature—
turning rivers into resources,
forests into fuel.

Even God—
not worshipped, but marketed.
Packaged. Sold.
Sanitized for safe consumption.

And so we are told:
To consume, you must produce.
Work. Build. Hustle.
Make money. Make noise. Make more of yourself.

But I ask:
Why?

---

The body needs little.
Food. Shelter. Breath.
And nature—when left alone—provides.

But we don’t stop there.
We overproduce.
People, products, plans.
We flood the Earth with the weight of our wanting.

Why do we need so much?
Why do we make so many?

The animals—they live simply.
They reproduce, but not endlessly.
They consume, but not greedily.
They take only what is needed,
then rest.

They belong to the world.
We try to own it.

---

And so I wonder:
Are we building a life,
or just filling a void?

Are we alive,
or just very busy?

We chase completion through what we make
and what we take.
But still—we feel hollow.

So maybe…
maybe the answer isn’t more.
Maybe the answer is enough.

---

What if we stopped?
Not forever. Just long enough.
To feel. To question.
To listen.

To choose production that heals.
Consumption that honors.
A life that doesn’t just do,
but understands.

---

Because maybe…
We were not born only to produce,
and not made merely to consume.
Maybe we are here to remember
how to be.