Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Location: Colorado Rockies

A recurring theme for me lately has been that of human choices. What do we do with our time, energy, resources, and what choices do we make. I've spoken in the past about this notion that we are co-creators of our reality and thus every choice we make in daily life has a direct impact upon the fabric of space and time.

I don't think this is too hard to comprehend as there are obvious examples of such instances of cause and effect. If we speed, we are less likely to have control and are more likely to crash. And this of course all goes back to the choice of how we drive. I don't think most of us are really conscious of our choices and the effects of those sometimes seemingly insignificant decisions. I think most of us walk around feeling like we are being bumped around by reality without any real say in the matter, or any real understanding of our role in reality. I think, to put it bluntly, most of us, most of the time, are just simply unconscious.

But I also think, if we take the time to slow down on life's highway, the patterns of our actions begin to reveal themselves in plain sight. When you take the time, you don't need to be a guru to get it, it's all there, we just don't often take the time to see.

The more time taken, the deeper the layers of cause and effect penetrate. We begin to see the impact of even the slightest most insignificant actions. We enter a world where with every action of our daily lives we either create harmony out of chaos, or chaos out of harmony. When we penetrate down into this level of awareness, life becomes exciting since perhaps for the first time in our lives, we see ourselves as powerful, magical and holding sway over the fabric of our world. This is not to be confused with dominion or supremacy, but instead we become a guiding force making choices/adjustments where necessary.

Think of the woman having a bad day, and the coffee clerk who sees this, instead of getting angry himself, decides to offer her a free cup of coffee. Think of the ripple effect, her day, her co-workers, her husband, her family. The clerk has a choice, anger or compassion, to get carried away on the tide of the same energy as the woman, or to slow down with awareness and transform that energy into an opportunity for compassion and understanding. To let this woman know she isn't alone, and regardless of her morning, the rest of her day needn't be shit.

This is what I'm interested in, this idea of the ripple effect tied into individual intentionality. If we create our reality with every action, then I would postulate that every single one of our actions carries with it intentionality. If you consciously act in the world to create harmony, then your actions, down to the simplest act, will generate such harmony. To not be conscious is to leave it up to something else, to not take responsibility, and hence to oftentimes create random chaos.

I recognize that this is a paradox. I recognize that in any effort to create harmony you also find yourself creating chaos, but that's the fun of it all. Chaos of course can also be a healing process, for example, you hate your job, you suck at it, you quit, you find yourself doing what you always loved. Aye that's it! It's a question of how we react to the instances of chaos, and whether or not we choose to transform that energy into something beautiful. The act of quitting the job you hate is, in itself, the choice to create harmony.

I'm not sure if I even follow but all this leads to the choice of perspective. We have a choice to perceive things as either negative or positive. Now I do recognize that there are true evils out there in the world, but I would also argue that these spaces of darkness are prime spaces to infuse light. The big evils of the world can often, but not always, be reduced back to the coffee clerk analogy where it's a question of anger or compassion, taking the time to be conscious or being carried away by a river of discontent. I think every day we make these choices, whether we're aware of them or not.

Anyway, I've been thinking about choices, right ones, wrong ones, conscious ones, unconscious ones... and I think it's at the root of everything. I think we are at the root of everything. Whether we choose to be nice, whether we choose to remain ignorant, whether we choose to slow down, whether we choose to buy fast-paced packaged junk, every choice, every action holds within it a corresponding reaction.

We choose.

peace,d