I can take a wad of clay in my hands and squeeze and
stretch it into some form that I like. I
can squish it all together and start again if I feel like. I can do this as many times as I want. Clay is malleable. It’s easy.
The same is true of that string of experiences that we
call our lives. We shape those,
too. But, we use different tools. Instead of the fingers and sharp sticks that
we use to model clay, we use our thoughts.
We use the sharp tools of our Attention
and our Intention. We use our ideas and expectations. Life is malleable, too, but it may not seem
as easy to change as squeezing clay.
That’s because we stiffen the clay of our experiences with
habit. We constantly repeat patterns of
thoughts in an endless loop, hour after hour, day after day. This is easier than being present in each
moment, having fresh experiences and having to make fresh choices, but, it’s a
lot less fun. It’s the difference
between being alive and not being alive.
Not being alive is easier. This gridwork
of habit loops is what makes the clay of our lives seem so tough and resistant
to change. The clay is still soft but
it’s stuck in a framework of habit patterns.
Who built this mess?
We did! As a matter of fact, each
one of us is pouring energy into maintaining our personal gridwork of habit patterns
at this very instant and in every moment of every day. It is our creation. We pay the energy bill to keep it lighted.
We could change it, of course, if we wanted to, but that’s
another story.
