In 2022, humankind faces a new sort of question–one that will determine both the future of our kind and the way we are remembered. And that question is our priorities.
I fear that while we have evolved, we have also lost track of what it truly means to be human and what our true purpose here on Earth is. We are so consumed in the recent created reality that attributes success with money, and a life with working until retirement. We stress about bills and have an anxiety-stricken youth, tethered to our phones. We must continue to fight for equality, while also collectively agreeing that creating a smaller, faster computer is what we need, even if it’s at the expense of some far away worker low on the supply chain. Countries continue spending trillions of imaginary dollars on defense systems just “in case” and fighting wars where the casualties are children.
I challenge you to rack your brain for the answer to this question; how are humans truly supposed to live? If you chose to give into the capitalistic society you were born and raised into, I can’t hold it against you. That’s all you know. However, I gained recent clarity to this question.
While floating down a river in summer of 2021, I realized that this is how life is supposed to be truly lived. With peace, and serenity, nature, and adventure. A little unknown, and fun. The river is your life path. You don’t know exactly where it leads, how fast it goes, and yet there you are, floating along. Along the way, you are faced with forks and multiple path options. While you might want to go to the right, the current (universe) might have other plans for you. Sometimes you will paddle and fight to go the direction that you may please. Sometimes that will be successful, you may end up on a new adventure with beautiful scenery you would have otherwise missed. However, sometimes, no matter how hard you paddle and fight the current, you will never end up on the path you thought you truly desired. And you must accept that, and therefore, choose to live with the fact that that was just not where you were meant to be.
Rapids may come and push you into the surrounding plants. At first, you may be annoyed or scared, worried, or stressed. You may complain that the river is too slow and boring somewhere along the way. But what you must realize is the ride is both much more fun and barrable once you make the conscious decision that you no longer fear whatever may happen and accept it. Not only accept it, but choose to enjoy every aspect of it whether you thought you’d originally enjoy it or not.
Life is but a river. It continues to flow–the current never stops. Until it does, and when it does all that’s left is the feeling that you gained from your experience floating down the river, the lessons you learned, and the sights you saw along the way.
**What brought this clarity was a fork in my river, that I relaxed and drifted down twice. The first time, as I drifted and came upon the fork, I paddled hard to go right. It broke my relaxation, took a good amount of effort, and was disappointing as I was immediately pushed into brush along the bank that I got stuck in. On my second time down the river, I did not fight. I got taken to the left. As I looked up at the sky a giant crane soared above me, landing a few feet away. I passed it as I continued to float, and all I could think about was the beauty that comes when you trust.