The world’s existence is separate from my own. It will continue regardless of my existence or contribution. Philip Larkin’s ‘Arrival’ contains an elegant expression of this:
For this ignorance of me
Seems a kind of innocence.
And yet I am in the world, and it is affected by my existence. So this, from the new-agey mockumentary What the Bleep Do We Know!?:
I am much more than I think I am. I can be much more even than that. I can influence my environment, the people. I can influence space itself. I can influence the future. I am responsible for all those things. I and the surround are not separate. They’re part of one. I’m connected to it all. I’m not alone.
