the big questions

i have of late been mourning, not so much loss, but change: the passing of summer, the dimunition of light, the coming and going of friends, the shifting of relationships, the ever increasing wrinkles. this has led me to muse on our human tendency to cling to what is, to deny the transitory nature of all things, even, and perhaps especially, in the face of massive upheaval.
(warning: this rambles a bit.)

we desperately cling to things, things that comfort us, shield us, that delude us into feeling secure. we do this on a daily basis, believing that because we have this house, this job, this spouse, this religion, that we are safe. we wrap ourselves in the cotton batting of belief systems, patterns of thought and behavior, thinking to buffer the world's blows, and stave off change. we weave illusions around ourselves, and believe them to be real.

well, bullshit, it doesn't work.
the illusions shatter, the possessions go away, the body decays,and then what do we do? have we had sufficient practice in the truth to be able to continue on? do we have intimate knowledge of that which is indestructible in ourselves, enough to persevere? or do we shatter?

and just what are we supposed to be safe from? what scares us so?

now, wiser folks than myself have been asking these same questions for thousands of years. many of them have created some nifty techniques for the investigation of same. i've used a bunch of them. they do work. i am NOT claiming any great cosmic knowledge here, just that i've played a bit in this field, and continue to do so.

now my guess is that pretty much everyone perusing this blog has been through some, as we used to say in the 60's, heavy shit. heaven knows i have. there's a lot of heavy weather blowing about these days too.

so here's the question: how do you deal with upheaval? tragedy? loss? betrayal? abandonment? what have you found that sustains, not just survival, but growth, in these times? what moves you forward? what keeps you flexible, open, receptive, when the urge is to withdraw, get rigid, shut down? and perhaps most importantly, can you learn through it all?

obviously, there's more to this. more questions than answers, as usual. let's see where this leads us.