Peace and Happiness

We’ve been on the brink of another world war for a couple of months. The political divide continues to widen as people polarize and close their minds. The pandemic rages on with the sixth wave looking like it will be continuing to intensify to peak sometime this summer. Unsettling times for sure.

I have been finding more peace and happiness despite these uncertain times because I have made a choice to disengage from the conversation. I think this mindset only became possible because I finally realized that nobody was listening. We are all just screaming into a void while suspending critical thinking.

Life is short. Everyone gets what they put into it. I don’t want to end up looking back on my life with regret. I am grateful for the freedom I have. I am grateful for the love that nurtures my life. I am grateful for the company of my friends and family. This is all I want for everyone.

“If you don’t feel free in Canada, nothing any political candidate can say or do will ever help you. A candidate peddling more freedom , or telling you to take back Canada is creating anger in you for their own purposes.Canada is not perfect, we have work to do, but we are free.” - Peter Radcliffe

Grounding

“It is in my nature to grow old. It is in my nature to get sick. It is in my nature to die. “

I repeat and reinforce this affirmation as part of my daily meditation practice. It never hurts to kickstart my day with a solid dose of reality to fuel my motivation to maximize the possibility of the present moment.

There is no work. It is all play.

“This is the real secret of life — to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.” - Allan Watts (1915 - 1973)

Victim or Hero

We all are goal-orientated to some degree. Society has evolved to the point where we spend at least eight hours per day earning a living to put food on the table, another eight hours asleep, and around three more hours eating. That leaves five hours left in a day to accomplish anything personal beyond these basics. When you consider how much time the average person spends in front of a television set or computer screen, having and following a plan to achieve your goals is almost a necessity. 

The busyness of our lives is guaranteed but all the activity generated by our busyness does not necessarily result in the achievement of our goals. Without discipline and focus, time slips away and with it, so does opportunity.

We can’t control the busyness embedded in our lifestyle so learning how to maximize the few hours we have available to achieve our personal goals is imperative if we wish to be successful.

Ultimately, time is the only commodity that has true value. Time is finite and none of us have any guarantee as to how much time we have. Maximizing what we do with the time we have available is the best way to achieve your goals.

The only way to maximize your time is to live in the present moment. Unless you are living in the present moment, your future is random. Tomorrow is determined by what you do today. Action or inaction will set your future. Action gives you control, inaction relinquishes your control. Action can make you the hero of your future, inaction can make you the victim of your past.

“No valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.” - Alan Watts (1915 - 1973)

The Art of the Question

As a teacher I am aware that when I answer a student’s question, there is a chance that the student may not use my answer in the way in which I had intended. I used to overcompensate for this possibility by over-explaining my answers in an attempt to ensure the intent of my answers were understood by my students. Thirty years of experience has shown me that the intent behind my answer is irrelevant when compared to the intent behind the question.

Experience with divisive politics, and even the pandemic, shows us that people rarely ask a question without already being invested in their own opinion. People are not always looking for the answer, more often than not, they are looking for a specific answer and they structure their question in such a way to help funnel the answer toward their agenda.

Ego is not the friend of the truth, education, or mindful living. The truth is out there and so is the knowledge you seek. You just need to make sure that your intent is to acquire knowledge and truth, not just an answer.

“People are very open-minded about new things - as long as they're exactly like the old ones.” - Charles Kettering (1876 - 1958)

SLAP SLAP SLAP SLAP SLAP SLAP SLAP

We’re going on to the third year of the COVID pandemic, Quebec has started a new wave of infections, Ontario’s waste water analysis is also indicating an imminent surge, and there are still people who do not seem to understand the seriousness of the situation. 

There is a lot emotion that goes into a person’s world view. The main weapon we have at our disposal in controlling those emotions is knowledge and understanding. We have the power of reasoning available to us and the intellect, for the most part, to understand the concepts of cause and effect, as well as the ability to reason out that freedom and rights come with significant responsibility.

My personal belief is that government mandates are never going to be effective unless there is a zero tolerance approach to enforcement. We can argue all we want about whether or not a mandated measure is effective but the argument has absolutely no merit unless the mandated measures are implemented completely and then the resulting data proves them effective or ineffective. If we are not following the mandates, there is no way to prove, one way or another, the validity of the strategy. Unfortunately for the minority who absolutely refuse to comply with any mandate unless they are not personally inconvenienced by it, they can keep fueling this pandemic indefinitely and continue to argue that the mandates are not effective despite the fact that it is their personal actions that are guaranteeing the failure of any mandate.

We will never be at the point where we can rely upon everyone to pull together in a unified, logical strategy. To be clear, when I say logical, I am talking about strategies based upon science and common sense, not strategies based upon emotions. Politics, personal agendas, and illogical paradigms will continue to divide us and continue to be used to promote personal benefit over what is best for our community and society as a whole.

No leadership or strategy is going to benefit everyone equally. Compromise is the only way we can progress together. Unfortunately for the privileged few, compromise tends not to be in their vocabulary.

We are letting politicians decide medical strategies. We are ignoring healthcare professionals and doing our own “research” on the internet. This is why we have entered the third year of a global pandemic with no end in sight.

“Make sure your worst enemy is not living between your own two ears...”  ― Nitya Prakash (b. 1988)

Life

I have three direct family members currently isolating after testing positive for COVID. It is frustrating that after two years of us sacrificing and being careful, we end up with COVID in our family at this late stage of the pandemic. All of this is happening because my daughter’s boss decided to go to work anyway despite testing positive for COVID. After my daughter was unknowingly exposed for two and half days, she was finally informed that she was working side by side with someone infected. Despite leaving work and immediately isolating, she tested positive two days later. In the meantime she had already unknowingly infected her sibling and her grandfather.

When I look at Alberta’s COVID stats, we currently have over 12,000 people infected with the virus per 100,000 citizens. That means 12% of Albertans currently have COVID. That number does not include my three family members and everyone else who is quietly battling COVID at home. Nor does that number include the people who know they have COVID and are actively infecting everyone around them because they refuse to isolate themselves. I suspect the reported cases of COVID in this province only represents a fraction of the actual current cases.

With infection numbers like that and the mask mandate rescinded, there is little chance of avoiding COVID.

Know Thyself

Knowing ourselves is no easy task. We spend an inordinate amount of time distracting ourselves from the reality of our situations. We work hard to suppress facing our true realities so intently that we make it impossible to reflect before we react.

Can we change who we are? Not likely. Who we are has been defined by nature and nurture. That is a lot of inertia to overcome.

The thing we can change is the way that we deal with who we are. Before we can begin to change the way that we deal with who we are, we must first know who we are.

“Know yourself to improve yourself” - Auguste Comte (1798 - 1857)