Between a seemingly endless barrage of new developments of many varieties, an ever-shifting, perpetually morphing schedule more packed to capacity than a turducken, and some very tragicomical timing the last couple of weeks, I wasn't sure I'd be able to find the time or the vibe I'd need to compose a new post anytime soon, especially since it has been a while since I put together a truly well thought-out and meaningful article (or any article on Steemit in general, for that matter). Add to which, I wasn't too sure as to whether anything had snagged my attention sufficiently enough recently that would make for good subject matter. But, as fate would have it, Steemit found a way to pull me right back even through the chaos of active day-to-day life, and I finally found my mojo again, seeing at last a concept and life lesson that had been staring me in the face for a while, yet which had somehow also eluded me the whole time.
So in the last couple of weeks, my place of dwelling was recently relocated, my family opened up a new shop, I was tasked with a dozen or more tasks in the process of both the former and the latter, and there was a great deal of organizing to do at home, at aforementioned shop, as well as in my newly reconfigured personal life.
Immediately after a lengthy eight months or more of just about spending all my days from dawn to dusk behind a computer screen, in a tiny room with no fresh air or ventilation, completely lacking for any sort of physical exercise, and sources of motivation that almost always seemed to leave much to be desired.
Few will deny that we all come from different walks of life. No one person has the exact same story to tell, page for page, from their life's yearbook. And that's more or less the cornerstone of what makes our world as spontaneous and unique as it can get. The fact that every person has a different cup from the next. Simple stuff. Relatively.
Now, from the get-go, the first thought many have coursing through their heads is that the spontaneity and novelty in regard needn't always be a good thing. Sometimes they can bring undesirable effects with them.
And most wouldn't argue with them either.
Nobody really likes change. It's daunting to most. It's intimidating to some. And for others yet, it can at times even prove emotionally damaging as well. We are told so very often to embrace change, and to welcome it with open arms. And just like going on a New Year's diet, conquering stage fright, or approaching that special someone on prom night in high school...it's often way easier said than done.
The reflective mind, mired in endless thought, would note that the reason change has this effect on human beings, is because it disrupts the sense of continuity our brains inherently seek and maintain. They cast and mold their sense of familiarity and comfort based on those elements of their environments that do not undergo frequent change. Move an individual's furniture around their house in their absence, and there is an immediate mental resistance they experience upon discovering the difference. Change ruptures and disorients the paradigmatic internal meanings the mind ascribes to the world around it. And only by expending a notable amount of mental energy and focus, can it work through the new stimulus it receives when its environment is truly altered, and start re-establishing the norms of its 'comfort zone'.
And our bodies and minds have empirically almost always fought change before grudgingly accepting it first. So why wouldn't we?
As I was forced to suddenly commit to a lot more hard work than I had been all those months, and suddenly made to forego all the other activities I would engage in prior (blockchain blogging included), I found myself actively and aggresively trying to seek out former modicums of "normalcy", only to continually find myself exhausted and tiring of the constant challenge. Like fighting against the current of an ocean. As a very compelling videogame villain once discoursed, insanity is to perpetuate the same sequence of actions repeatedly, expecting different results, and so I started searching for alternatives. Ever as always, perspective as a concept came to alleviate my inner adversities.
I came to recognize change as being similar to a cyclone. Life is an extemporaneous whirlwind of creation, sustenance and destruction, each finding expression in various compound and abstract forms in one's everyday life. These three elements are all around us in some measure, at all times, regardless of where we go, what we do, or how we do it. Like cyclonic winds, the world constantly moves around us in an ever-growing, unquantifiable spiral of patterns. The place most people often start their day however, is at its eye, at the centre of it all. In becoming too keenly involved and attached to said spontaneous whirlwind of the elements, one often leaves the calm, steady airs of the eye, and ventures into the tempestuous gale beyond that comprises the cyclone, flailing abjectly as they struggle to control a force of nature that is outside the realm of their influence.
Which was the mistake I was making. The "insanity" I was indulging in.
I had long since come to understand that more often than not, when circumstances that are utterly, impossibly beyond the control of a mere man (or woman) ambuscade one whilst navigating the labyrinth of life's puzzles, mysteries and challenges, then one may very well find great power in surrender. Not unlike allowing the current of a river to carry one forth along its artery if leaving it isn't an option, as opposed to attempting to swim against the force it exerts. This experience proved to be a gentle reminder of what once I had forgotten.
All matter undergoes change, and as such, for any creation to truly find the extent of its expression, it must undergo changes that forever alter its existing state. And we are no different. If we are to, as a people whose individual members' actions each ultimately represent it as a whole, grow and mature into something better than we already are, then the day every individual learns to accept change not because they are advised to, but because they understand that their norms are to metamorphose into something even greater, is the day humankind's evolution as a species will crest its zenithal pinnacle.
Is it I alone, that waits athirst?
