What is life? We talk about it and read books about it and say we experience it, but what is it? What does life consist of?
There are the obvious things,
God, family, friends, hobbies, work.
Yes, these things altogether make up what we know as life. Sometimes it seems as if we’re living what we think is normal. But sometimes we get that feeling, that irrational, wild feeling to just drop everything and go. To abandon the care and the worry that we have and set out to who knows where.
We talk about all these material things that make life better, big screen TVs and cable, luxury cars, smartphones, and all the little toys and trinkets we accumulate as we trod through our life.
Life was supposed to be made easier by technology, but really it has just added a greater burden on us, demanding that we produce more, better and faster. We are the world of the instant and immediate, we worry about the future and security, rather than just concentrating on the here and now and what really matters. We are told that we have to plan, be ready for the future and the uncertain, make sure you have enough reserves to last yourself for awhile. Because not being able to predict or handle what’s coming up is a fatal weakness.
But maybe it’s not.
Maybe we need to be open to the mystery and uncertainty, accept it and let it crash over us like a wave on the ocean shore. Too much comfort makes us lackadaisical, no matter how hard we work. We become accustomed to how things are, and the precise order in which they happen.
And isn’t that just boring after awhile?
I know, it’s nice when you don’t have to guess about what’s going to happen. Certainty is nice and needed. No one likes not knowing what’s going on, or what’s going to happen. If things were always uncertain and crazy, we’d go crazy. We wouldn’t be able leave our houses for fear of what might happen. That being said, a little change helps us in the long run. We grow and learn from it. It shows us new ways to look at the world and new ways to fix problems. Imagine if people only thought that we could fly by having a contraption that flaps it’s wings. We would probably have never invented airplanes. But someone had a different view and said let’s change the design.
Life itself is nothing but change.
It’s constantly evolving and changing, it’s a river that is cutting it’s way through a canyon. We’re that canyon. It’s said that water takes path of least resistance, isn’t it surprising that it’s not a straight line. When we think of getting somewhere fast we usually try to take the straightest line. But sometimes that’s not the best course. Sometimes we have to twist and turn and go through switchbacks and loops to get to, not where we always want to be; but where we need to be. There is something in us yearning to be set free and loose on the world. Why are so many books written about journeys and road trips. Why do so many kids think of freedom when they get their first car? Why is it that our hearts beat a little faster when we realize we get to drive by ourselves on our first road-trip. We get excited with a little tinge of fear, but as the saying goes, fear lets us know we’re still alive. Each of us is living a story. The question is how are we living it?
Socrates says, “The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being.“
Are we just walking down a path based on what the signs say? Or are we walking down a path that we have chosen based on consideration and actually paying attention to where we are going.
Sometimes I think little children live life more completely than we ever could. They are endlessly curious, and somehow from childhood to adulthood we manage to strangle that curiosity out of them and tell them not to ask so many questions. But questioning is what we should be doing. We should get that curiosity back. Question the norm and what we know. Search for the answers and solve the unanswerable. Change only comes with curiosity and a little bit of fear, sometimes more than a little. But living a stagnating life, is not really living life at all.
