A Tale of Two Destinies
In my end of year posts, I always try to vary my approach on how to encapsulate what I have learned and articulate it in a way which will not put the reader or listener, depending on how you have chosen to consume my content, to sleep. In my opinion, the absence of philosophical meanderings in our lives often leads us down a path of cognitive stagnation, eventually leading to the elimination of nuance.
Applying the principles of Zen and the Toltec wisdom has enabled me to peel back my own layers of self-doubt to undertake the journey of discovering my authentic self. The year of 2023 has been another steppingstone on said journey with 2024 shaping up to be even more prominent.
The excerpt of this months writing may have some of you baffled but I can assure you it fits perfectly into the theme I hope to convey in this post. Written and performed by Scottish singer Annie Lennox, and included on her debut solo studio album, Diva, this line has stuck with me for many years. When I initially heard it, I simply nodded to myself and smiled, verbalizing a oh, so very true before continuing with my day. These nuggets of truth surround us in any given moment but how we interpret them is vitally important in developing our self-awareness.
Although, I did much better on the staying active side of things by maintaining a presence at the gym and rediscovering muscles I had long since forgotten were present in the human body, I struggled with keeping the mind focused on the present moment. Struggling is not, inherently, a bad thing because it is often a time to evaluate and reassess, so we can apply what we have learned.
I found this not only manifested sporadically in my daily routine but when I was at work. When you consider I work solely from home, there is no way to separate the two in order to figure out which one is influencing your superego to engage in wanton acts of self-righteous indignation. This took me a little by surprise because I had sufficiently stuffed away this aspect of my personality in a tidy box. I even put a colorful bow on top of it. Therin was the folly of my thinking.
I find certain attributes, such as arrogance, very distasteful but when you acknowledge it within yourself, it can be a very humbling experience. My point? We all have one and attempting to stuff it in the closet solves nothing. Just like anything else in our lives, if you bury your head in the sand like an Ostrich and expect everything to be hunky dory when you pull it out, I have news for you, what will be staring back at you will be much worse.
Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Thien Buddhist monk who is known as the father of mindfulness and one I have referenced in my posts numerous times, wrote something in his book, Understanding the Mind, which helped me to begin my own journey in understanding where my suffering truly originates and, dare I say, where all suffering comes from.
He explained, our mind is a field where seeds are planted and how much we water those seeds, will determine if they flourish or wither. We can choose to water seeds of hate, jealousy, and anger or those associated with love, compassion, and empathy. Deciding not to water the former allows them to eventually wither and die; however, they always remain. Your choices in what you allow to flourish in your mind, directly influences true happiness or allows suffering to manifest. When you suffer, so do those around you.
Now, you are probably saying; Whoa, dude, this is a bit deep. My response? Good. All of us, no matter our socioeconomic status, scholastic achievements, and life experiences can be teachers. We simply need to stop, look, and listen. Too many distractions and superfluous technological gadgets, serve to undermine moments of true clarity. This is certainly understandable given the world we currently live in, especially in the United States, where we seem to be mad about everything and fail to see, in the grand scheme, just how good we have it when compared to others around the globe.
This madness affected me more than I cared to admit and served to humble me in my journey to understand Zen’s true principles. Although I have read many of those principles, I was not taking the time to actually practice them. This allowed for old thinking to re-emerge and the floodgates to open, if I am to quote a very, overly used analogy. Bottomline is the practice of mindfulness is not some type of fad or novelty to incorporate when it suits you. It is a companion, accompanying you throughout your entire life to help cultivate the reality of who you truly are.
What has this to do with the title of this months blog? It has everything to do with it. In general, the course of the Sy’Arrian Legacy Series and my writing is contained in what I call, The Two Destinies. The first one deals directly with the very race I created, the path they are currently embarking upon and their evolution as a people who have been given the ability to wield unfathomable power. The second one is the belief; I was destined to write this story and I say this with the utmost humility I can muster. It has taken me far too much time to embrace this concept. I personally feel, had I not gone through the experiences with my prior publisher and learned very valuable lessons in understanding another aspect of content creation, I would not be where I am today.
This year has allowed me to flush out details in character backgrounds, establish proper timelines for the prominent races, clean-up inaccuracies in story building, and fine-tune the history of the Sy’Arrians. I have already mentioned some of this in posts throughout the year but felt a synopsis was in order. It has also given me the opportunity to correct some rather awkward storytelling transitions in The Cradle of Destiny and smooth out a wrinkle or two in some things I noticed my prior publisher did not catch. These refinements allowed me to properly establish an interesting twist to be revealed in one of the future books to the series.
In addition, I took an inventory of my initial struggles on how to utilize social media and concluded on how to best utilize my platforms of choice. The emphasis on using my website, which incorporates other elements of my personality, will be front and center in 2024. I took a little bit of time to look at how I use Instagram and moved past the this is just a picture posting platform mentality, to see just how versatile it can be. I will also be dipping my toe into learning and using video to expand how I can build an audience for future content creation endeavors.
Lastly, I will be looking to incorporate two important areas of my content consumption where focus will be on the very same storytelling elements, I have spoken to ad nauseum since beginning my online writings in 2017. This is my way of incorporating one area I have seriously neglected, which is sitting down to, well, actually read other books. The second area is designed to maintain strict control on how much time I spend doing it, which is computer gaming and, before you ask, no I have not fallen off the wagon as the saying goes. I will only be focusing on those expansive, very story driven, first-person role-playing games and evaluating how the story was delivered. I will not be critiquing game play, graphics, or replay ability. These are not the focus of my content. The Assassin’s Creed, Horizon Zero Dawn/Forbidden West, and Star Wars games are some of the best examples.
Time management will be critical and something many of us are very adept at performing. I am continually and exceptionally busy at work with not enough time in the day to complete everything; however, the object lesson is how you use the time given. It is a duh statement for sure, but we need to be mindful not to whisk away the thought too quickly. Acknowledging it is about the how does not mean we implement the practice effectively; hence, the fine art of practicing mindfulness. Changing and/or substituting new practices with old ones requires focused intention, yet another duh statement. The new mantra I have been incorporating as a balancing technique is less talk and more doing, which plays into other areas of my personal life.
There you have it. My thoughts on what 2023 taught me and a road map for 2024. I want to forgo my standard closing and state a wisdom I have learned through a lot of raw conversations with my mind. If you are like me and identify as a fix it type of person, i.e., one who simply wants to help others, there is a small tidbit I failed to understand when I was younger.
Before you can even fathom what it takes to help someone else, you must first learn what it means to take care of yourself. This I do not classify as a duh statement because most of us, truly, do not know how to do it nor do we devote adequate time to focus on it. Rather, we manufacture a myriad of reasons why we cannot do it.
So, talk less, do more and be humble. This will allow wisdom to take hold and give you the ability to help yourself, while being effective in helping guide others to take their journey towards mindfulness.
Be safe and be well.
References
Annie Lennox
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Lennox
don Miguel Ruiz
Thich Nhat Hanh
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Nh%E1%BA%A5t_H%E1%BA%A1nh
Zen
