LESS EGO / MORE SOUL

I had had enough of the world today. I was on my way to somewhere I was ‘meant to be’ when I got distracted and ended up stuck on the highway long past my turn-off.

It didn’t matter. I took it as an opportunity to do something new. And so I turned off the main roads and into the bushland.

I parked at the base of a walking track and, barefoot, wondered up the path. I went less then a 100 metres before thinking ‘fuck it’ and strayed off the beaten track.

I walked for hours through nature; not knowing where I was and not knowing where I was going. I could feel the raw earth beneath my feet. Stabbed by stones and twigs between my toes, slipping on the damp leaves. I smiled. This is how it’s meant to be.

I walked that way for answers; confused whith where I was at in life. Burdened by expectations and responsibility. Over over-thinking.

And so I listened to the trees,
the birds and the bees.

Found it funny how my body would stop before my eyes had even registered that I was about to walk into a spider’s web.

I walked around, up and down, thinking about this:

We humans think we want to live without fear and so we attempt to control risk by creating order. We are encouraged to follow this order through exaggerated fear of the unknown. It’s why we create specific paths through the forest – laying down our cement. Paths we feel safe on because our fellow man has removed true nature at our convenience. And so we don’t trust nature because we don’t understand it.

I also came to realize that you can become immobilized and overwhelmed when faced with making a ‘serious’ decision as often we see our choices as limited to walking away or walking forward. In those instances I say listen to your gut, your instincts and intuition. But there is also a third option, available in any moment. That is to stop, be still, observe and appreciate the beauty that surrounds you.

Forget about ‘the reality of your situation’ and just be.

Savour this moment. It is all for you. Sure there will be more. But more is inefficient and wasted if you can’t be present now.

I do my thing, and you do your thing. I am not in this world to live up to your expectations, and you are not in this world to live up to mine. You are you, and I am I, and if by chance we find each other, it’s beautiful.
Frederick E. Perl

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I think asking yourself ‘would I’ rather than ‘should I’ is a much more honest approach to life. Everyone does things that they think they shouldn’t; who sets the standards of what is ‘acceptable’ anyway? ‘Should’ is mildly irrelevant to say the least. ‘Would’ is the raw truth. It’s liberating. It’s comfort in you’re individuality. It’s asking of yourself to be you, not what others want of you or expect of you.

Yes really, every time.