flatlining

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
- from Nelson Mandela's famous speech written by Marianne Williamson

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We are, most of us, just comfortable enough, that we are not pushed beyond our boundaries to discover our true capabilities. When we are confronted with something significantly bigger than us, when life becomes desperate, we find that we are "powerful beyond measure". There is an inherent strength in all of us that emerges when we are truly tested- and we all want this- this chance to be, as Joseph Campbell would say, on the hero's journey. The stuff of movies. Real obstacles to overcome. A real battle. A real struggle. Something to make us feel alive. Something to get through. A way to triumph and become truly human... but we are instead just stuck in traffic. Getting through the day is our biggest adventure...

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It is possible to reframe our lives so that the mundane tasks we find ourselves completing daily become less banal- and offer opportunities to really move beyond the apathy so many of us feel to something else entirely... What if the real struggle, the real battle, the real living is all about the "fight" to become fully human in all of this emptiness. We are flatlining. The adventure is the waking up.

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Every step towards this aim is cumulative. Every doubt we have about our lives is a window into something real. Every mindful action. Any time we give our full attention to another person, to a task, to our own breathing, our beating heart... we are waking up. The adventure is the waking up.