Life, you sneaky son of a gun.

What’s the point of it all anyways?

It’s all just rolling hills. Up one hill and down the next. Up and down, up and down. On the road to nowhere. Where does it go?

What is the point of it all?

We set the goals. We achieve the goals. We set more. We achieve those.
What’s the point? Where’s it all going?
Where does it end?

But maybe that’s just the point. If we knew where we were going, would it really be fun? If you knew you were going to win the board game Risk, would you play at all?

Isn’t some of the excitement in the uncertainty? Isn’t part of the fun figuring it out?

We go off and we embark on this venture and we listen to the people around us. We take advice from those closest to us.

But sometimes those closest to us aren’t exactly the best for us. Sometimes it feels like we’re just sorta a bunch of sheep running after each other chasing each others tails.

I kind of get the sense that we’re all just as lost, we’re all just as confused. Who does have it all figured out? Who lives a perfect life?

I don’t think it exists. I don’t think there’s an end.

So then it’s the ups the downs; it’s the self and the self discovery; the present and the creation of future. Creation.

It sort of seems like that’s it. The creation of… It doesn’t matter what, it just matters that it happens. The creation of ideas, the creation of self, the creation of adventure.

They say that creativity, while somewhat inherent, is far more a skill to be practiced than a talent to be born with.

For the longest time I didn’t think I was creative. I wasn’t good at drawing. I don’t like cooking. Arts and crafts were a waste of time.

But each of us seems to have some unique talent. Something we’re born with, something we do far better than the vast majority of people on this Earth.

I’m not sure where it comes from. Some have faith. Some say it’s God. Some say it’s evolution or believe in Nature or an all knowing Creator. I don’t know what the hell it is, but I do genuinely believe that each of us has a predisposition to be good at something.

Some people are planners. Others super connectors. Some people draw, some make people laugh, others like to code.

I don’t quite know what to call it. I don’t know how to define it. But it feels like intuition. It feels like something our brains come programmed with.

Maybe it comes imprinted in our DNA when we’re born. Maybe it’s something we see when we’re young. Maybe it is God.

But it doesn’t feel very subject to change. It feels like this weirdly immovable object born from within. It’s not even a calling, not at first, not for me anyways.

It started off as the softest of whispers, not even beckoning but yelling at me to stop. It felt like that friction when you’re done with doing dishes. It feels like having to clean the floor for the fifth time, like grocery shopping when all you want is a nap.

And slowly the seed grows. Slowly it asks what the hell’s wrong with you and where should you be going, like a stubborn dog who doesn’t want to get up. It persists.

It felt like a dormant seed at awhile, unconscious even that I was watering it.

For me it’s been words. It started off with ideas and quotes. It grew into speeches and rhymes. It’s progressed. It’s slowly morphed into this addiction that I can’t quite get enough of. Ideas, exchange, progress, language, rhythms, music, sounds, beauty, color.

It absorbs you. It starts to take hold and refuses to let go.

I’ve still got no clue where it comes from and no clue where it goes. But sometimes it’s terrifying.

It demands the uncomfortable. It demands the swim upstream. It demands a moment away from the crowd, alone, unsure, afraid.

And damn is it spooky.

“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary”

Steve Jobs

I firmly believe humans can do anything. We can go anywhere, see anything.
We just don’t know how yet.

Our brains are problem solvers. They grapple with ideas and figure things out. They’re curious and want to explore.

But at the beginning it doesn’t make sense. It’s felt like entering a tunnel underground with no light in sight, but being told by an acquaintance it’s open on the other side.

I think this is what Religion meant by Faith. You don’t get to know the end. You don’t get to see where you’re going. There’s little there besides belief. And even that feels like a flame just about to extinguish.

But it feels like we’ve been blinded by our own eyes. We look around and compare, overwhelmed by insecurity. The wool is pulled over our eyes. We think the others have got it figured out, but they’re all just a bunch of lost sheep running around, anyways.

Our inability is an illusion.

We think we haven’t got it figured out. But nobody does. Everyone’s just as confused, just as hurt, just as afraid.

It’s easy to stay with the herd.
It’s easy to follow one step in front of the others.

But it’s about time we stop listening to the others and start listening to ourselves.

“I have been a seeker and I still am, but I stopped asking the books and the stars. I started listening to the teaching of my Soul”

Rumi

I’m pretty sure anything’s possible, but not when we’re only attempting the already finished.

We forge the iron of our brains to obtain or solve damn near anything. Doctor, lawyer, engineer… cup of tea. Rocket science, Olympics, Bob Ross… It’s all just time soaking.

But how often do we soak in the shillings of our own soul?
How often do we step aside and ask ourselves what the hell we want in the first place?

It’s spooky. It is f@#ing spooky.

But the brain is far more capable than you or I give it credit for. We rationalize away. We avoid.

It feels like we’ll die alone in the streets. Nobody there. Nobody to care for us. Nobody to take care of us.

But that too is an illusion. It’s a security measure. It’s a speed governor on our own brains.

Our brains default to security and safety…. the status quo. The path well traveled.

But that’s not where the gold is. It’s not where the soul profits.

Humans have figured out underwater welding and how to fly planes. But it’s far easier to rationalize away big dreams with a flippant ‘Not possible’.

If it’s ‘not possible’ it rids us of responsibility of even trying.
It it’s ‘not possible’ it’s not our fault.
If it’s ‘not possible’ we don’t have to wade through the waters of fear.

“Your greatest guide is you”

Juli

In all the times I’ve heard a ‘Not Possible’, it’s usually from someone unwilling to go on a limb.

‘Not Possibles’ are spoken from fear rather than reality. They’re uttered from the Observer not the Visionary. They come from those not dreaming big enough.

I think I’m looking for the ‘Maybes’ in my life. I’m looking for those in the grey area, the ones who aren’t quite sure, but willing to give it a shot anyways.

We’re social creatures. We belong in a tribe.

We’ve evolved to perhaps the most complex society this Earth has ever seen. The sheer volume of human interests is unbelievable. Sculpting. Painting. Crumpet baking, hotdog competitions, mushroom foraging, Nuclear physics, and underwater submarines.

It’s incredible. There are people interested in anything and everything.

But those people aren’t immediately around us. It’s up to us to veto the fear, to stare it directly in the face and tell it to piss off.

The dream starts with less than a whisper. We don’t water it so it wilts and dies.

We’ve got the dream. But without action, life becomes a bit of a nightmare.

I dunno, man, I’m just not looking to wake up at 70 yelling at the kids to get their stupid bikes off my lawn.

Pretty sure dreams and fear go hand in hand, night terrors.

‘Without fear you can’t have bravery’

Dustin Poirier

“If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space”

Unknown

“Everything you’ve ever wanted is sitting on the other side of fear”

George Addair