Causes and Effects
We reap what we sow, but what seeds are we planting?
From Blind Examination to Causes and Effects. We will study what happens when the world passes us by with our unresolved issues and quirks we keep making excuses to avoid. More people operate knowing their favorite latte or superhero without ever challenging themselves on how they view the world. The dogmas and rituals we conduct in our daily lives run in the background unabated and controlling our lives without us having a say in what we become from them.
Life gives you back what you place into it. Any get rich quick idea only fades when actual structure is needed to hold any weight the idea or plan will inevitably hold. We see that so often but never question the idea of what would make someone go that route. It is just rubbed off as an unfortunate tell of an individual who aimed too high with so little at their disposal. We simply do not know how close we are in following right in the footsteps of the one we feel pity for.
Like them they believed they had it all figured out, but reality gives you back exactly what you need to see, maybe not what you are willing to accept. So we tiptoe around the obvious conversation that would lead us to a better conclusion in the future. Though, in order to accept that reality we must accept defeat and the bitter taste of being wrong. That is only a fraction of the nuances we see as too distasteful to swallow or too ugly to face. So the preset is left in place and the conversation is diverted to a later, never coming, date.
That avoidance will manifest in ways we take for granted or in a mishap of our character. That friend at the water cooler you seem to love to chat with has a view of politics that rubs you the wrong way. Oddly enough what they said resonated with you but you declined the framing because the introspection is almost too much to bear.
You are on a retreat with your significant other when they passes and gestures at you in a way that is uncomfortable. You love them of course and the feeling is mutual, but you do not know what brought about that unwanted feeling. You don’t say anything to preserve the mood and hope to the heavens they do not do it again. With a little pondering on the action it is not only what they do but what has risen up from your unresolved childhood that makes the wound all so fresh today.
The list can go on and on but the only thing we will do to ourselves is question the action and not the origin of the reaction that is deep seeded. Planted so long ago that it is lost in the weeds of our minds, and mostly on purpose. Normally what we run is something we learn from our families, community, and friends. With the same pressure to hold them in place as they are now. Not to challenge, not to examine, not to even know that those quirks, dogmas, and rituals even exist.
You cannot fight what you cannot see, said any person with common knowledge of combat. The funny thing is the avoided conversation would only hurt for a moment compared to living blind and for the pain to last a lifetime. In order to smile outwardly first there has to be an legitimate reason to smile inwardly. To shine lights on the dark spaces of your mind and examine them thoroughly.
So thoroughly that you seem to have become an entirely different person from the one who chose to do as they were told so long ago. Careful not to completely unload what all you learned, there is a skill called discernment that is there to help. It is ok to refine who you are without completely giving up what you stand for. It is time to remove the weeds and begin the work to plant new seeds.