Chandelier Lighting

Struggle is a highly lucrative and marketed conscious state of fatalism. Our cultures, families and environment perpetuate the very idea that there is opposition in all things and that we must fight for everything - fight to overcome, fight to eradicate, fight for peace. And although true to some extent, it is only relevant if we engage in the battle. Battle, by definition, is an unceasing process that should we accept or consider necessary, will only bind us to continually courting struggle and unhappiness. Homeland wars, weight-loss, addictions, economic failures, and personal relationships are all advertised as battles to be won.

But how often do we actually win? For how long are the victories sustained? Are they really ever won? Battle feeds into concepts of resignation and provides a payoff for self-avoidance and the flagrant dismissal of very real avenues toward abiding peace and happiness. Battle denies ownership, relies on external armor, and often eagerly engages in the negativity and rush of a following audience.

So, what of the idea of disengaging? What if battle is not the only option? What if all transactions did not require an opposing force that necessitated struggle? After all, battle is only ever the symptom of dis-ease; and if that's what we choose to engage in, then we accept a never-ending state of emotional and physical suffering. To disengage and realize that there is only battle if we capitulate will open up vision to another way of seeing and seeking life.

I believe in relativity. I believe that human nature cannot and will not understand the very basis of what is essential until disaster hits and we can only think of our base needs - shelter, hygiene and the wellness of loved ones. I believe that we quickly forget the last go-round with a loaded scale, impending bills, difficult relationships, or other personal ills when emotion swings on the side of slight and we are able to fall into the games we play to deflect personal responsibility, deliver judgment, and assuage guilt by embracing the selfish luxury it is to battle.

Can you imagine a shift in paradigm if we no longer thought to battle but remembered to heal? Can you imagine the peace that comes from boundaries set and life lived inside of lines that cease to require approval? Can you imagine the strength of families, nations, beliefs, and economy if we thought to address the root of living instead of focusing exhaustive attention on the excessive symptoms that mark the continual defeat that mires in reasoning, emotions, depression, and negativity?

Well, there is another choice, and it is a choice indeed. This choice resides solely within self: Self-love. Self-hope. Self-happiness. Healing, happiness, and fulfillment - even economic fulfillment - will only find sustaining purchase if they begin from the inside out. It's a broader view than most would think since it involves the entire cessation of ego into walking in and living from the internal purity of soul. No decision, if jointly made out of ego, will ever find sustained peace since its intent is not to heal, but to justify. We must be intrinsically artless so that we find the clarity that is fundamental to living in a space that would nourish growth.

Worry creates scenario; scenario flirts with our insecurities; and insecurities incite emotions, cloud truth, and fuel the jeers of those who would not care. We destroy ourselves by stepping into battle and then effectively ignore those who love us more than we would think and more than we have ever allowed them to. Personal honor is paramount.

I would humbly entreat to disengage completely; to redraw the definitions of what it is to live. Now. Today. There is not one moment of any day that we do not have the freedom to reinvent self. And that begins the moment we decide that the sweetness of life is very definitely not contingent upon what happens to us, but rather entirely dependent upon what we bring to it.

Live Joy.

Living Joy - This Carman Girl