“When I choose to see the good side of things, I’m not being naive. It is strategic and necessary. It’s how I’ve learned to survive through everything.”
– Waymond Wang
What is life? Any attempt to distill it will fall short.
Here goes one, anyway:
Life is grappling with the idea of infinite potential realities for your future, based on the infinite choices in front of you, and conceding that the life you actually DO live, the branch of all the possibilities that you actually DO take, is all you will ever have, and is therefore, your greatest treasure, always. In a sense, life cannot be any greater than it is right now. Love what this is, no matter what it is, because that is all you will ever have, and could not possibly have been any other way.
Pay full attention to everything unfolding before you. Do not dwell on everything that might be coming around on conceivable corners. Do not dwell on all the things that could have happened, if-only you had chosen differently.
Dwelling is the void of the mind that can hold you captive, if you allow it. Dwelling is the temptation we all face. Dwelling is the garden of anxiety and regret, of cynicism and nihilism.
What a relief to discover, it is unnecessary to dwell. Rather, we can be with our immediate experience. We can take full note, of the beauty, and love, and aspects of experience that bring joy, that foster understanding, that deepen connectedness with all other things. We can take full note of the lessons that each hardship is teaching us, and share with others what we learn from them.
Life is constantly being tempted toward doubt – toward ugliness – toward pessimism and nihilism – and choosing to resist it. Looking for the bright side and stepping toward it. Giving others the benefit of the doubt. Being an end for anger and fear and doubt when they land at your feet – greeting them with resolute faith that something better is possible. Acting this way, not because you are naive, but because it is the literally the only way to be the world you want for everyone else.
To be human is to be in concert with everything – everything that might be, everything that was, and everything exactly as it is now – and maintaining your center. Never being tempted to force or manipulate it, to “obtain” anything from it – as that is merely an illusion. Just being with it. Letting it all happen. And influencing all things with a warmness that communicates, in a way that words alone cannot touch, everything is OK.
(Inspired by a viewing of Everything Everywhere All at Once)
This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.
– Rumi
