1 - Feel Nature
Us, as humans, view ourselves as separate from nature. We think that we
bear any major differences from the grass that grows among us or the
birds that fly above us. We view benign inclement weather as an
unfortunate symptom of the world around us, something to be avoided.
However, nature is deeply ingrained in our human spirit. We rely on it to
live, eat and drink, and to sleep and awaken. Our involvement in nature
is consequential as the animals we keep in zoos for amusement, the
plants we farm for food, and the pests we evade and ****. Feel the nature
and the life around you. Go into the woods and let the leaves, wind, and
atmosphere consume you and replace your worldliness and doubts. Walk
under snow and rain and watch the water melt on you, see the water seep
into the ground and join puddles and lakes before it evaporates and falls
again. Sit at the shore of a lake and observe the algae drift with the
water affected by the wind, everchanging and yet static. Bask in the
Moon's forgiving light, watch how it monitors the stars and hides behind
passing clouds, reluctant to reveal itself. Nature moves in seasons, just
as we often do. As one condition of our natural surroundings leaves,
somebody or something may enter our lives, separating one era from the
last, creating a new essence for ourselves, until the weather changes
once again and life's dynamic nature is confirmed. Welcome these
changes with open arms and let the world lead you wherever it might
take you. The sun, in affecting the environment we were born from, may
evoke changes so great in us that we become as unrecognizable, as
leaves change after autumn's cycle runs its course. If we don't let
ourselves change, we will surely reach the same fate as a building built
on sand after its creator refuses to acknowledge the changing nature of
the tides.
2 - Respect Pain
Change will always foster pain, as pain fosters change. Avoiding the
pain of change simply means you are choosing the pain of staying
stagnant. Trees do not avoid the winter coming, though the cold will
surely make survival difficult. In preparation for the winter, as the days
shorten and become colder, Trees will pump sap out of any pores in their
wood, which will act as an insulator, protecting them from any
temperatures they will not handle. However, they will also shed their
own leaves, especially smaller and thinner ones, and let them fall in
order to lose less water and energy. Do not run from the winter. Do not
run from the freeze, and your losses and the sting of the cold air working
against you. Keep yourself safe, and learn to go through life and operate
normally under these new conditions. The pain will, someday leave,
either through more change or familiarity. Life will be different, but
alright nonetheless. Life will go on, with or without you, so working
with the change and the pain it will bring is the only way to ensure you
walk with life another day.
3 - Love
No matter how many times it has burned you before, do not stray from
love. Love is not purely romantic, it lives in every interaction we have in
daily life. Showing love to somebody is not limited to what we do for
somebody or how we act around somebody. Listen to the songs admired
by people you love and feel their warmth in the sounds they've hung on
to hundreds of times before. Love a piece of art by letting it deeply
influence your own art, let the words and colors and sounds of the artists
before you morph themselves into the art you create. Love your body by
treating it as a temple where you, yourself, are the god. Love your own
power by performing your skills to the best of their abilities. Love a
deity you honor by dedicating pieces of your life both large and small to
your worship. Love no longer performed is not love lost. This love is
still easily felt by a warm memory, a preserved gift, or art created in its
midst. Feel every piece of love you have as deeply and dramatically as
possible. Love, often comes as a harbinger of pain. Love also often
arises from the ashes of pain, providing a warmth that you may have
lost. No matter what, love fuels every action we take, and without love,
the cycles that run our lives would cease. If the sun no longer loved the
earth, seasons would hold no power or rhythm. If the ocean lost its love
for the land, life on the earth would quickly lose water, and be able to
live no longer. An artist who loses their love of their craft is robbing
learning and developing artists of gaining inspiration. A person who does
not love life will quickly lose it.
