You know how it is when things go wrong? It starts with little things, a bit of aggravation here, something vexing there, then something that pulls an actual groan from you, and suddenly you realize the dominos are doing their sequential toppling act. I recently got to that point of trying to chase them down and stop the one that would stop all the others, and suddenly I saw the light!
It's not a matter of catching them from behind and stopping them; the dominos of Life will topple on through infinity! What you need to do is get a bit ahead of the domino that's about to strike, sidetrack it by changing its angle, and start a new path in the zig-zag!
Before I go any further with this blog, I want you to know that what you are about to read is the result of the delvings of my mind during my time alone with myself. I have always been the kind of person who needs to define everything, have a clear reasoning of what, why and how things are. The question of how to stop the chain of things going wrong began to plague me when I first perceived it as a chain. What follows is the process I went through as I formed my own definition of the problem and then reasoned out the solution.
Okay, so, having slept on the idea, I woke up the next morning with refreshed determination to get out of my rut. Naturally, when the dominos are toppling in the things-going-wrong scheme, the theme running through the process is inertia, skepticism, disenchantment... (need I go on?). So all I had to do, I realized as I drove down the silent early-morning streets, was angle Inertia so that it would bump into Will Power, which would then hit Belief instead of Skepticism, bypassing Disenchantment altogether and leading to ... Anticipation maybe? I pondered on the feasibility of it all in terms of my present reality.
Okay, sounds good in theory, I thought, as I headed out of the parking lot on foot with my umbrella warding off the light drizzle. But too pat. How can I really make it work? And it was then, while walking to my first class under the soothing rhythm of the rain, that the realization hit me. All I needed to think about at this point was Will Power. I mean everyone has will power. So if I have it, all I have to do is use it to overcome inertia. Surely I can do that. I can mentally control the degree of Will Power that's needed!
Ah, so wait a minute. Mind, then, is also an important domino in this chain! I mean, even before applying Will Power to any reliable effect, you need to be aware of the need itself! In my case, for example, I had to be aware of things going wrong before I could consciously decide to thwart inertia! Yes, I thought, Mind is the initial propeller!
So there I was chanting a little song to myself as I walked to my second class: Mind, Will Power, Belief, Mind, Will Power, Belief... (so I wouldn't forget). But as I came out of my second class, it hit me that, while Mind is the propeller and sustaining force of Will Power, the mind itself is a fragile thing. It's true! While most minds are innately intact, there are many unknown factors that can suddenly cause a collapse...
Fearing that I might be back at square 1 of the things-going-wrong chain - I took a good look at the fine line between Strength and Fragility during the 12-minute walk to my next class. I might have gotten bogged down in the futility of it all, had I not remembered that Belief was one of the key words of the chant. And I remembered then what I've always known, what we all know...
Belief is what keeps Mind in good working order. Belief gets you over the scariness of seeing how fragile everything - right down to Life itself - really is. Belief lets you handle the deal you're dealt and get through whatever it is you need to get through. And it doesn't matter whether you believe in an entity of some sort, humankind, yourself, fate (which some people insist is a non-entity) or a combination of some or all of them... Sooner or later, everyone experiences a moment where it all comes down to their own belief. Belief itself is the rock that steadies you when Will Power wavers. It's the root you hang onto when Mind questions...
In the end, the conclusion I came to - which ultimately brought me great delight and allowed me to shift gears at last - is this: It's the domino effect of Mind, Will, and Belief - in whichever order or combination they occur - that ignites that all-important burst of anticipation.
And of course, once you have something to anticipate, you know for sure that things are going right again.
Know what I mean?
1 comment:
I know what you mean mom. I do that to myself too... tell myself that my mind is stronger than whatever else is bringing me down... it takes a while sometimes, but in most cases, my mind kicks my will power into gear and I manage to pull through it.
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