If all your friends jumped off a cliff…

Inhale deeply.  Smell that?  That, dear reader, is change.

It feels like we’re all standing on a precipice.  ”Leap and the net will appear.”  The second you take that leap, everything changes.  What’s important to me is how I approach the leap.

Japanese Zen buddhists believe in makyo, a kind of vision you have when you’re meditating.  It’s not an enlightening vision, but it might feel that way.  I had had some visions so I talked to the man who was leading my meditation class.  He told me to “sit more vigorously.”  The problem I’d had was that my mind was constantly racing.  I had a hard time not indulging the thoughts that would pop up in my head.  That’s where the world seems to be right now:  Standing on the precipice, about to change the world, knowing that there’s a greater purpose to it all, but completely over-indulging in the bullshit.

Taylor vs. Kanye, Death panels and other misinformation, and Michael Jackson’s brain, just to name a few.

Change is inevitable.  We change every day of our lives.  I’ve always firmly believed that we are given what we need, not what we want, by whichever god we choose to put our faith in.  Oscar Wilde said, “When the gods want to punish us, they answer our prayers.”  I hear a lot of parents say, “I have to do what’s best for my kid.”  What’s best.  The thing I take away from both of those quotes is that we don’t necessarily know what’s best for us.  Ultimately, my faith goes into the fact that I’ve been given what I’ve needed, not what I’ve wanted, from life.

But, hey, I can be pretty stubborn.  I can sit there and say, “I want to do this,” or, “The woman I’m dating has to have these qualities,” or, “I am this or that kind of person.”  But I’ve found that that kind of thinking basically boils down to “I will be happy when I have this (thing/experience/whatever),” or, “I’ll be happy when the I find the person who fits all my criteria,” or, “The only way I’ll be happy is if other people see me in a certain way.”  I get closed off.  I’m not being open to the possibility of the world around me affecting me.  I’m not letting myself be changed by the life that’s happening around me because my mind is focused on those desires rather than the reality that’s right in front of me.

The thing about it is that it takes courage to see that reality.  It’s easy to view everything through the black and white lens of “Does this fit my preconceived set of criteria?”  Then, rather than seeing the world in front of you, you’re chopping it up into pieces that fit your past thoughts, and pieces that don’t fit.  And we’re off to the races, not seeing or appreciating that which is unfolding right before our very eyes.

The big picture problem with all that is that we have our parts to play when it comes to what’s best for the world.  Just doing what we want, without any thought to how we’re contributing to or affecting the world, is easy.  And selfish.  I watched Stranger than Fiction recently, and this quote stuck out to me:

“it’s a book about a man who doesn’t know he’s about to die. And then dies. But if a man does know he’s about to die and dies anyway. Dies- dies willingly, knowing that he could stop it, then- I mean, isn’t that the type of man who you want to keep alive?”

If only the seemingly mundane choices I make in my life could have that kind of meaning.  Maybe it already does.  But either way, it’s about living your life artfully; making it count.  Approaching the precipice with purpose in mind.  And then, just making the leap.  Ready?  3…2…