Sometimes I get confused and disoriented in my life. It just happens.
I’m not sure how or why it happens. I can never see it coming but then all of a sudden, bam, I’m right in the thick of it. I never know why I’m anxious or how I’m ever going to find a way out of this confusion.
It’s a universal type of confusion. A more difficult type of uncertainty. The type of confusion that has you wondering what to do next. The confusion of not knowing if any of the things you’ve accomplished in your life really even matter. The uncertainty and inner struggle of being versus doing.
I think as a society we’ve gotten torn away from nature. We have become disconnected from the oceans, the forests, and the open fields.
We traded being for doing but it comes with a cost.
There are so many things that fight for our attention. There are so many pressing things that we just must do. Each and every moment of our life is another push forward, towards some progress. A progress we are assured we really need and all the meanwhile disconnecting us further and further from nature and what it means to be human.
Maybe this is why we almost destroyed and tried to assimilate the aboriginal people. Beautiful civilization which have always had such a profound respect and connection to nature. Maybe we became seduced by the idea of progress and need to be reminded where we came from and where we need to return.
Maybe we have lost our way and are paying our debt with confusion and restlessness.
I accompanied my family yesterday to a pebble beach in order to look for some much treasured sea glass. Yes, it just broken pieces of beer bottles, but it is much more than that in the eyes of children.
I could have found something more productive to do with my time but instead I played along. I got on my knees next to my children and dug patiently for tiny bits of broken glass.
It took some time but at some point I realized how calming and soothing the waves of the lake were. How soothing it was to be so close and watch them crash and assert themselves on the sandy shore. I realized how lucky I was and how long it had been since I heard them. I realized how much I missed them.
It’s funny isn’t it?
Funny how we forget that we are human animals. Animals that are part of the eco system and not above it. We are happier people when we find ourselves surrounded by nature. We do terrible things when we lord ourselves above it.
We find confusion when we wonder what we need to do. We find peace when we ask who we want to be.
There is a great gulf of difference between doing and being.
Only being. Being present. Being part of nature will give you a sense of peace.
A peace that can be rediscovered while digging for magical shards of sea glass.
Cover photo generously provided by photographer David Zawiala via unsplash.com
