Well, I must apologize to everyone who takes the time to read my little blog, for I have probably lost most of you with my neglect over the past few months. You see, I’ve been going through a lot of battles within my mind and have been all caught up with what the hell to do about some certain things; and in fact, I am still battling. But I have a feeling I am nearing the boss battle, and coming out of the war soon, and feeling more motivated and creative of late, so here’s a post about a recent understanding I have come to.

Life is NOT a journey. Whawawawhaaattt? Probably contrary to what a lot of people hear. And then some people hear this and think “yeah no duh” like it’s obvious. But very few people understand it. Hell, I barely understand it, because there are two parts to understanding, intellectual/conceptual which perhaps is only about 20% of understanding and then there’s knowingness which is the other 80, and you get it from experiencing, feeling with all senses the doingness and the result of action of that thing, that concept, that reality. And so people say they understand that life is not a journey, but still plug along their paths, hoping for that end, that great thing, that success, the finish line, partially or fully ignoring the road their racing on.

Well, I’ve resolved to seek to understand this concept more thoroughly through experience because I believe it is worth it. To not let time pass you by along your road to whatever, but instead to ALSO experience life to the maximum you can along that road.

As with everything, there are extremes that are unhealthy. For example, I wouldn’t advise you all to do what I did, which was through my frustration with my life at the time (ten years corporate drone) to up and quit to travel and do whatever I wanted to without any real savings. I could have, if I was able to see so back then, really and thoroughly enjoyed life while rocking the work and relationships with the company I was with. This ties into Radical Responsibility, true ownership of your life and all it’s elements, but that’s a future post.

Everyone, no matter how shitty your situation, is along a path. Your outlook/mindset about your life has a great impact on how you treat your life, relationships and your journey. If you really consider your life to suck, you’re in a fatalist mindset and hell yes, your life will suck. Some people, perhaps a small step above pure fatalism, consider that while their life sucks, the goal they’re after is much better and by donkey they’re going to get it. A bit better, but they’re still going to miss a lot of opportunity to enjoy their play along the way.

Alan Watts, the great british philosopher who mixed eastern thought with western reality, touches on this subject. He considers life to be essentially playful. Life is like musical instruments, you don’t work the piano, you play it. Same thing, you don’t WORK LIFE, you PLAY LIFE. Life is a game, and you should have fun with it. If your current circumstances aren’t very fun, seek not only to change those circumstances, but also see if you can change your mindset about them to see how they can be enjoyed on an ethical, responsible level, keeping the good in for yourself and others.

I like the guys that run this YT channel because of their pretty sweet music and illustrations they sometimes put to their vids, so enjoy it; this is Alan Watts on this subject: https://youtu.be/rBpaUICxEhk

Have a wonderful week my friends, and remember to enjoy the path you’re creating for yourself along your way to wherever you’re going.