Pink Floyd and Inaction

“And then one day you find ten years have got behind you. No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.”

                                                                                                      -   Time by Pink Floyd

There are many ways to get from point A to point B. I know this is cliché, but often times getting there isn’t as important and HOW you arrived. If you are constantly looking for shortcuts or easy ways out, you only cheat yourself out of enjoying what is around you. Every wrong turn you take will only cause frustration and anxiety. If you take the straight road, the one already mapped out you will never undergo anything for yourself. You’ll encounter many people along the way and all their stories will be almost identical to yours, rarely discovering anything new. The people behind you will have seen exactly what you just saw. The people ahead can only tell you what’s in store.

If you opt to take the scenic route, it may take you longer to reach your destination, but you will witness a myriad of events along the way. You will cross paths with many people who all have a different story to tell. Their tales will encourage you, their trials will enlighten you.  You will live through a diversity of experiences, each of them helping you discover, little by little, the person you are destined to become.

These last few months, as my birthday nears, the above lyrics began to ring truer. My dad said that when his mother knew she was dying, she related to and appreciated this song.  The more I listened to it, the more I feared “un-change”.  I have been wasting time, I feel, doing what I was “supposed” to, rather than what I wanted.  It seems every time I made a plan or set a goal, the universe put every obstacle imaginable in my way. I would think, plan, research, discuss, experiment, and always, to no avail. I was always disappointed, often discouraged, and sometimes found it hard to want to attempt anything again. I had tried everything, new ideas, new goals, new timeframes, new methods, new perspective, and even new priorities. Nothing worked. I needed to find a better way to live and think, to decide and cope… A better understanding.

 I thought of Taoist theory of inaction, then the Buddhist theory of interdependent arising, the laws of science and forces of nature. I even considered the Christian theory of "God's plan, or destiny", the occult, mysticism, things being written in the stars. I soon realized the only thing I never did was just "let things happen". I don’t mean sitting on my ass all day waiting for everything to fall into my lap, I just mean trying to go with the flow a little more. Stop putting all my hope into what will happen EVENTUALLY, and instead focusing on right now. I must allow things to happen the way they are meant to instead of how I want them to happen. I don’t want to waste anymore time planning when I can be doing instead.