🌪️ TREE 674: Resisting reality

In case you are wondering, Bonanza Clementine and Mr Pike (TREE 652, 656, 660) are very much alive in my head where I’m working on something with them. I’m not sure what it’s going to be yet.

Our FFOREST friend Denelle commented on my 11 October post about changing your beliefs. She typed four short sentences that I think are profound and deserve to expanded on. I asked her if she would like to do it. She declined because she is busy turning a house into a home right now but said she was happy for me to go for it. So that’s what we’re doing this week.

I don’t resist what is. I realize it and embrace the challenge. It’s inevitable my beliefs will change. The choices will always be for MORE 🪷

— Denelle DeFer

Reality as it’s happening to you doesn’t fit into a tidy narrative. This is upsetting because stories are how humans make sense of the world. When you have a story that works for you, you don’t want to give it up. When reality contradicts your story of How The World Is, the natural tendency is not to update your story but to squeeze and scrunch and twist reality inside your head to make it fit your story.

This is why people
get conned
have relationships with terrible people
throw good money after bad
become defensive when faced with evidence that
they are not as delightful as they tell ourselves
rage against the dying of the light.

A good way to save yourself a shedload of suffering is to make your story of How The World Is easy to update so that you can quickly accept whatever reality throws at you.

This is a great groove, but Connie Constance’s vocals are what make this song for me.

Grow slowly
Jeff