Heading Out
The sky is beautiful with wisps of clouds, blue and grey and pink. The temperature sits at 52 degrees fahrenheit. Today is Monday, January 1, 2024.
No matter what one does, is, thinks, or feels, the river keeps flowing. The safe spot is in the care of a parent when one first arrives - all the necessary things that need to happen for survival are provided. As one grows, exploration begins. In that exploration, discoveries within and outside of self emerge and certain choices have to be made. Cultures are very clever in trying to use means to indicate where a life might be headed. For example in the Korean culture, parents in celebration of their one year old will host a feast, gather friends and family and at some point will lay out a tray of objects - a skein of thread, a book, a paint brush, a pouch of money - and watch the little one select something that intrigues them. And there is laughter and encouragement - "pick the book!", "pick the pouch", "pick the thread", "pick the paint brush" - these foretell a future. The child will be prosperous (pouch usually with coin), smart (the book), artistic (the brush), live a long life (thread). A kind of fortune is told in the initial choices a baby makes, without calculation, or guile. Some of the foretold futures come true!
We grow and are trained, by whoever happens to be around, or not. The influence of adults, whether parents or relatives or friends can have a meaningful impact on a young one. Will being "successful" in terms of values closely held and promoted in the culture of capitalism lead to a successful life? Most will say "Yes!" becuase money creates options, and a sense of security in this society. And in fact, this seems to be true - there is stability for the individual and many options that can be exercised with material success. But there is deep and serious struggle too because one realizes at some point, you can have only so many wagyu beef dinners or high-end whiskeys, or flashy watches, or even houses before it all becomes clear: So what? Life always reveals itself.
Some make do not have the choices that open the door to wealth - they begin believing that living a life of purpose is what matters most. So the one who lives through intellect and talent as an artist may be very fulfilled in this life in terms of a certain kind of understanding. Not much money, but an abundant life in experiences and encounters. The same things are possible - travel, opportunities to engage in rare and mystical, magical meetings, and entry into rarified spaces that draw the spirit and soul into an entirely different dimension. And, there is struggle of a different sort - rent, food, money for transportation, and medicine when illness arrives. One must get healthy - or not.
For both, at some point, life ends.
There are those who have enough (and capacity to have even more), but something is awakened to show there is a way to live that is in grace and gratitude and awareness of things that bring both joyful and painful moments in life. The skill is in knowing the answer to the question, "What is enough?" and when one has enough, another level of consciousness leads one to ask, "What can I share with those who do not have enough?" And beyond the sharing of stuff, there is even another level of consciousness that invites one to dance between and among all of what human existence requires of us - to keep discovering, to keep struggling with our own questions about existence, and to stay in that space of curiosity, grace, gratitude.
Heading out to a new year, and new opportunities to grow, like the trees, the grass, and the light.