Victories
Today's morning darkness feels heavy, cold. The temperature sits at 50 degrees fahrenheit (not so cold). Today is Monday.
It's going to be a full week. Everything is swiftly moving to the end of another calendar cycle and the sensibilities are being pulled in so many directions! If it wasn't for the holiday lights, it would be depressing. People are looking to win, to gain a victory of one kind or another, whether it is in year-end team sports, in politics, in resisting the fact of aging, in finding the best possible deal during this holy season that has turned into a season of gift giving. Where is one to find the losers?
Locating losing and loss might be an important thing for survival. It's the losing that leads us to humility, and often the inspiration to train harder and find where our resilience factor sits. In victory, one gets to benefit from all the energy of others who are there to congratulate, to adore, to bathe you in positive words and gestures. In losing, one is left to ponder.
What happened? How could I have done better? Was it me or the conditions I was working in before the loss? Can I get back on to the game and keep trying to refine myself so that victory might one day be mine?
Society loves the winner. People build careers and friends and many other benefits come along when one is a winner. The winning always feels good – a first. Then, what comes is insecurity, right? When winning is the norm, one doesn't know exactly how losing will be managed. The anxiety about not winning, about not being victorious builds. Then, the insecurity comes with the realization that always being the victor is not how life works.
At some point, the realization is that victories might be less due to talent than luck, less due to one's skill than the fact that the victories were the result of poor training conditions for the other, or just karma in the moment. And here is where an important choice can be made: Are you ready to see reality? Yes or no? Things change - including events that call for winners and losers.
The idea of victories came as the news delivered details about the intensity of competition over leadership, global conflicts, the climate shifts, and more. Then the idea of cooperation came. When the lens of moving toward another might give way to allow for something new to emerge rose up, an invitation opened. The invitation to see the opportunities for new possibilities opened. What if there were to be a shift in which competition was to be replaced with more cooperation? The world would look very different. Victories would not be so cherished, except perhaps the ones that relate to beating disease in the body/mind. Losses are where we are today. It's an invitation that is being extended. Wondering if anyone else sees things this way.