Just like gravity

How is gravity like life?

Photo courtesy of Rob Potter

Photo courtesy of Rob Potter

It is so easy to get caught up in the events of our lives. Particularly the sticky ones. The ones that don’t feel so good. The ones that seem to cause strife and struggle in our lives.

Years ago I used to unconsciously predict the quality of my day based on the presence or absence of (ahem) 'incidents' during my morning preparations.

Catching a nail on my nylons, spilling tea on my blouse, tripping across the floor in my heels...all of these things seemed rather clear indications that  'it was going to be one of those days' (and not in a good way).

In retrospect, this measure of 'good' and 'bad' seems ridiculous.

Fast forward to today, and I am much wiser to the ways of my mind; it’s desire to control the outside world...or, at the very least, make some kind of sense of it so that it can, at the very least, appear predictable.

Perhaps one of the most painful and disempowering things that we do to ourselves as human beings is unwittingly place ourselves in the role of victim to the seemingly deliberate and callous machinations of the Universe.

We assume that when something doesn’t go our way (which handily aligns with the way we expect it to go) that the World, or the Universe or that Life itself, is against us.

Here’s the truth, though.

"Life" may not appear fair. But then again, "Life" isn’t actually personal.

We humans are the ones that make it personal with our very personal minds and our very personal thoughts...about it.

We are the ones that attribute meaning to it.

How we see Life or the Universe or the World is a construct that we make up within our own personal minds, based on personal thought in the moment. 

Without this construct, Life is just Life. The only variable is how we interpret it within our minds. 

Think of it like gravity.

Most of us freely acknowledge that gravity doesn't appear to have an axe to grind with anyone. We realize that when a glass is dropped, it will fall. We clearly see that gravity is just doing what gravity does. It is nothing personal. 

So it is with Life.

It's not personal.

It's not out to get you.

We only think it is...and that, right there, is where we make it personal. That, right there, is the only place we can make it personal.

Within our personal minds.

So go ahead, chip a nail, drop a glass, trip on the rug...it doesn't have to mean anything more than you chipped a nail, dropped a glass and tripped on a rug.

No big deal.

Nothing personal.

Lana Bastianutti