Pathwalking 177
Pathwalking can be fun.
I am constantly writing about the complexities, the paradoxes, the difficulties and dualities of this process, but recognize that it might be time to point out that this can be fun.
When you make your own choices in life you can choose things that make you feel good. You can make choices for things that you want to do and experience, and that can be a lot of fun.
People spend too much time focusing on things that they do out of sheer necessity. We work jobs that suck most of our days up and spend time with people we’d prefer not to and fight traffic and so on. We allow ourselves to be victims of circumstance and accept that fun will only happen on weekends and in small doses along the way.
Why do we accept that? All of life is a journey, whether you are at work, sitting in traffic, watching a TV show or playing a sport. How come we accept that a lot of that journey must be tedious and sometimes outright unpleasant?
I know that the argument easily made is that we have responsibilities. There are primary and secondary and tertiary needs to be met. We have to work to make money to buy essentials like food and shelter and clothing first. Then we have to work to make money to buy transport and insurances and phones and such. Lastly, when we take care of the primary and secondary responsibilities, we have to work to make money to buy entertainments, fancier cars and phones and jewelry and other toys.
Our culture being what it is, the primary and secondary needs take a lot of focus, and cause us as such to do things that we might not find a lot of fun. We accept that we have to sacrifice freedom and choice and control in the name of the almighty dollar because it’s the responsible thing to do, and as a reward for your sacrifices the tertiary needs can be met.
I have spent most of my life accepting this as fact. I have only in the past couple of years begun to realize that it does not have to be fact. I can choose a better destiny for myself, I can decide that I deserve to have more fun on my journey than that.
My choices have often been met with skepticism on the parts of friends and family. They see me sometimes struggle to make ends meet and question my choices. This in turn causes me to question my choices, and I wonder what I can and should do differently.
The truth is I have been experiencing more inner peace and feeling more joy more often since I began this process. When I started to walk my own path it was freeing, and I began to find more and more that I could explore to further this process and have more fun.
First it is important to acknowledge what I have. I look around me and acknowledge that I am very fortunate, and as such I am grateful for what I have. I am healthy and have insurance, I have computers and an iPhone and a decent car and live in a safe and fairly nice place. I have a wonderful wife and amazing friends and a nutty but loving family and two crazy but affectionate cats. I have a job and a multitude of skills I can and do use. I have a hobby that provides me entertainment.
There are tertiary needs I would choose to fulfill differently, but when I look at what I do have my life is more fun than not. This is, I believe, a direct result of walking my own path. I have made more of my own choices for myself over these past three years, and the result is that the quality of my life is higher and I find more ways to have fun, even in the day-to-day and while doing mundane things.
Life can be more fun than struggle, life can be more action than inaction, more choice than coincidence. When I began to choose paths for myself, I began to grow more aware that I don’t have to be unhappy where I work, and that I have more power to change than I give myself credit for, and that I can choose to listen to and either acknowledge, take heed of or ignore outside influences.
Everybody experiences days that are not fun. Some are the result of things beyond our control. While we have to take responsibility and do things we don’t always find enjoyable, that does not need to dominate our life experiences.
Finding fun in Pathwalking begins with and frankly ends with gratitude. When I don’t just acknowledge the things I have and the people in my life but express my gratitude for them I gain more things to feel gratitude for. Gratitude helps me to build bigger and better things, and as such allows me to find and have more fun along the way.
The more I realize that these choices, despite paradox and complexity and difficulty and hurdles and so on and so forth are mine to make, I see that I can have fun in making these choices. Sometimes the puzzle or conundrum or other matters along the path are what I want, and lead me to bigger and better things.
Pathwalking can be fun. Most importantly, we deserve to enjoy and have fun as we walk the paths we choose in life. The journey should be as interesting as the destination. We have much to be grateful for, and when we acknowledge this we can more easily find the fun to be had.
What are you grateful for today?
This is the one-hundred seventy-seventh entry in my series. These weekly posts are specifically about walking along the path of life, and my personal desire to make a difference in this world along the way. Feel free to re-blog and share. Thank you for joining me.
The first year of Pathwalking, including some expanded ideas, is available in print and for your Kindle.
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