During my twenty years (or so) of dating, I had many well-meaning people in my life say ‘be careful’ in response to sharing my latest love interest. It was intended as some form of positive advice, I’m sure. But they were saying something that was basically unintelligible to me. No matter how hard I tried, I was constitutionally unable to fathom this advice.

‘Be careful?’ I would say to myself incredulously. ‘How do I be careful? I’m not exactly going to meet a random stranger down a dark alleyway at night, am I? So what do they mean? Be Careful. Hmph!’

I was naive in thinking that each time I found peace, I had found final enlightenment. Then the past pain would rear its ugly head again. In those desperate moments, I found myself asking; ‘How deep is this well of pain!? and ‘When? When will it end!?’ Twenty years later, I no longer ask these questions. I no longer seek to be enlightened or free of suffering. I understand that each moment is a choice.

…if everyone decided to move away from big business, big tech. and a disposable society, if everyone became resourceful, thrifty, content, overjoyed with the arising of consciousness from within, in a state of bliss with their mere existence, consumerism would die.