Canyonlands National Park
Relatively speaking, it is easy to live a life of comfort, safety, complacency and routine. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. If that’s your choice, and you’re happy, then go for it. I wish you nothing but the best. This post, however, is not for you. This post is for the restless dreamers who need something more, who have no choice but to seek out something beyond their current situation, and who are willing to risk the comfort and security of their lives to, at the very least, try and live an unconventional life filled with the uncertainty of taking major risks, risks that could seriously disrupt their lives in the process, potentiating the need for damage control, while pursuing the dreams that led them, ultimately, to the decision they just made. We do this because we are constitutionally incapable of not wanting something different, something more out of life, and we are willing to take risks that others may deem foolish to make these things happen. If this sounds like you, or perhaps you’d like to meditate on the idea because you’d like this to be you, please keep reading. If not, well, you’ve gotten this far, so you might as well keep going. Something in you must be attuned to what I’m saying.
Full Moon over Arches National Park
It is not easy to disrupt one’s life, but sometimes we get to a breaking point where we are willing to make serious, often frightening changes to a situation that we’ve deemed to be, not only damaging to our emotional well-being, but one that perpetuates small goals we’ve developed for ourselves which, on close examination, are mere facades of contentment that we use to justify the fact that what we are doing with our lives are not compatible with the true visions we have for ourselves. We live day-to-day at odds with not only who we want to be, but also at odds with even the slightest of steps that can get us going in the path of that direction. The emotional turmoil this causes can only be speculated upon, but I think most of us feel it at some level. For some, it can cause a degree of psychological chaos that, at times, is almost impossible to bear. I am no stranger to these feelings of existential angst. But, what of practical concerns? What happens if we leave behind our shallow, empty, safe, complacent and comfortable lives and fill them with uncertainty? What next? How do we survive? What if everything comes crashing down and is left to burn and harden to stone in the Pompeiian ruins of our own volcanic whims? Yes, these are all questions that will need to be faced, but one thing I can tell you, from experience, is that going over these questions in your head while you crawl your way through the drudgery of that life you’re living in a manner that you never wanted to live, is only going to lead to anxiety about and resentment toward your situation, and you will wallow in that despair until you take the plunge into the icy waters of the vast ocean of possibilities.
The mighty Pacific – where the Earth ends, and starts anew