Back at the hospital for another change in medication for my stomach, since the last one didn't work. It is a pity I couldn't stay on the first, because it was working enough for my liking, but not for the doctor. If this one doesn't work, I will look to go back on the first again, because while the doctor might not be happy, it is about quality of life for me, not length of life. We'll see how this one goes.
It was Father's Day on the weekend and we went out for a brunch. I noticed a pack of tarot cards and a guide book sitting on the window sill next to us, so after ordering we did a reading. With Halloween discussions at school, they were talking about superstitions in a kind of philosophy life class (instead of her being in a religion class), and Smallsteps was interested. Especially, since they mentioned the number 13 and she is born on the thirteenth.
Suffice to say, I don't believe in any of this kind of thing at all, but that doesn't mean it isn't real. I don't mean that the cards tell past, present and future, but the suggestions they give can help people reflect and fit whatever is mentioned into their own story, and they can even make it "come to be" as they work toward completing the story.
Stories are powerful.
As when we have a story we connect with, that gives us some kind of meaning, we can use it to change our thinking and our behaviours. The reasons we have to do something are just stories we tell ourselves. For instance, while I have been trying to get my wife to eat more healthily and exercise regularly because it is good for her health, it is not a compelling enough story for her to do it consistently. However, now that she has a fancy event coming up, she now has a story that is strong enough for her to at least pay attention for the next month to what she eats and does. Of course, had she consistently been doing what is right for herself daily, she would always be ready in case something came up.
Doing the tarot reading can offer suggestions and if someone believes in the story enough and is able to keep it in their awareness, they might be able to use it to improve their lives. If for example the what was suggested was a positive outcome that required effort to achieve, it could be that the person puts in a little more effort, and is therefore more likely to get a positive outcome.
A self-fulfilling prophecy.
Cards are not needed, nor are palms or horoscopes, because we are all storytellers with the ability to weave a tale that works to activate ourselves. The problem is, very few of us do this, and instead consume the stories fed to us, which largely keep us passive, seated, and restrained. To activate us, the story doesn't have to be very elaborate, it just needs to motivate us to do what is necessary, to push through whatever difficulty is blocking our way, and get the job done. It is easy when "the job" is pleasant, but when it is not or requires a lot of effort or time, we need a stronger reasoning.
Think about the mothers who inexplicably can lift a car off their trapped child with superhuman strength that they cannot replicate. And then recognise that in order to be able to do that, they had a very strong story to motivate them. They didn't have to create the story, it came to them in an instant and they became single-minded in completing the task required. They were living fully in the moment.
Technically, they should be able to repeat the feat again, but it is highly unlikely they will ever be able to, because the story will not be as strong, and they will not be able to reclaim that moment. People talk about "living in the moment" more, but what most people don't recognise with this (even though they think they are in the moment) is that if they were truly living in the moment, they would be maximising their potential all of the time. Or at least, have access to their full potential and be able to fit it fully to the conditions at hand. Instead, what people are doing "in the moment" for the most part, is more observational and thought based - they are in their head, evaluating their surrounding, not living their potential.
While our thoughts are important for our experience and our ability to prepare for the future, living the moment means being able to use all of our available tools effectively. We are much more than our thoughts, and a huge amount more than our emotions. Yet for the most part, we have become largely inactive. We think we are doing something, even though we are sitting around doing very little. I believe that this is a big part of why we are rapidly turning into a lump of collective lard. Because we feel that we are doing, and our thoughts evaluate the feeling as positive action, even if we aren't doing anything of consequence at all.
In the past, on order to survive, we had to do things to have shelter and food, and it is likely that much of our thoughts and feelings were aligned with the need to survive. Even when we would get philosophical, innovative, or spiritual, our thoughts and therefore our stories, were aligned with survival. Our superstitions surrounded doing what was needed for quality of life, whether it be sacrificing a lamb to the gods for a good crop, or praying to a fertility statue in the hope of getting pregnant. We would examine life to make it a life worth living.
Yet today, how much of our personal energy is directed toward examining a life in order to make a life worth living, and how much is spent on entertaining thoughts that distract us from thinking about what is needed for a good life? I suspect that most of us spend little time building the stories we need to create a good life, but a great deal of time with distractions, entertainment, and avoidance thoughts. They still provide story collateral, but it is rarely of the kind that inspires action on our part to improve ourselves.
While I sit here in the hospital café writing about this, I look out at those sitting here with 90% of them sitting on their phones, staring with a frown on their face. The two phones I see, one is reading a low-quality news service, the other is scrolling images on social media. And I think that this is what society has become now; consumers of stories that don't help us use our potential. The stories might make us feel something, or think something, but they are not compelling enough to get us to do something.
Life is in the being, the doing, the loving.
The action to be, to do, to love. It is about movement. Life cannot be passively lived, but it can be passively passed. We can all sit and do nothing, with tubes in us, asleep and technically, we would be alive, with thoughts and feelings. but is it living? And if we are not living the life we want, no amount of thought or feeling is going to change that, but we can use these tools to create a story that we are willing to act upon.
A story needn't be factual, to create reality.
Lies that motivate us to do nothing.
We consume them every day.
Time for a new story to live toward?
Taraz
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