It’s All Too Much: EcoTrain QOTW
Abundance woes
In this week's EcoTrain Question Of The Week @eco-alex asks us "what have you had too much abundance of, and how did you deal with it? What would have been the likely outcome if you had not dealt with it both short and long term?
Too much is taken and not enough given
— Steve Howe
Waste is an un-realised abundance.
That was the wonderful re-frame I took from @eco-alex's QOTW announcement post.
And so I contemplated where I sat with this notion. What came was the word "gratitude".
With that word, I suddenly noticed that the abundance I thought I was chasing was already here, and I was missing it. In those instances, I have been focussed on what I didn't have, instead of looking at what I have plenty of and wondering how I can re-purpose it.
This is not limited to material things, but also thoughts, emotions, ideas, time, and so on and so forth.
Well we do the same things that we always do
Nothing changes, but the channel changes views
Well the trouble with you has been
You can sleep, but you can't dream
— Midnight Oil
There is nothing like a change in view to help me realise this kind of thing. I have just returned from a trip to Japan; it's still very much an ultra-modern 1st-World country, but it was different enough for me to recognise that there is so much I have that I didn't realise I did have until I was without it, even if just for a couple of weeks.
And not just that I have stuff, but an abundance of it. Which i take for granted and don't utilise as an invaluable, generative resource.
And of course, having found myself immersed in Zen Buddhist teachings and practices for the last few days, I employed the inquiring state to ask the purpose for such a behaviour. The answer was obvious.
You never stop needing
— Silverchair
The craving of desire, that unquenchable fire for more... more... more... the root of suffering, according to the Sakyamuni Buddha.
Overwhelmed by you
There's been a niggling thing that's been irritating me for a couple of months now, in the context of my relationship with my partner. I can only describe it as the perception that my 'love-tank' was empty.
Of course, I now realise that it wasn't really empty, I was just refusing to use what I had. Because I was afraid of emptying it. It only took being separated by thousands of kilometres to realise that. Here I have been, afraid that all was falling apart; feeling that I wasn't enough... there was never a lack... just an abundance that was simply being un-used, discarded, ignored.
And I've been facing this alone
For much too long
— Queen
And this goes for lots of other things in my life: money, time, friends, etc.
It's a kind of 'overwhelm' — and maybe that's also a key way of looking at the issue of 'waste' in the material/ecological sense. Nothing in nature is ever wasted, it is simply re-used, re-cycled, re-purposed. But I used to help clients with this really easily: break the problem down into smaller, manageable chunks.
Example: not enough time.
Where is my time?
Time is consumed by my work; working brings money.
Solution: exchange money for time.
Ta-da!
Which is of course, precisely what I've been doing for about 18 months (maybe less); buying myself time away in a foreign country. So those extra 4 hours of work per week over a period of time were the way I achieved a family holiday. When I look back at that, it really was not that much extra effort.
Part 2: Next week's real life "tire" challenge
So in the QOTW announcement post a challenge was given to do over the next week:
The challenge is simple, find an old tyre and re-purpose it! You can do anything you like, there is no end to the ideas you can have with tires, whether they are art based, functional, gardening related etc..
While this is an awesome idea to help clean up the world of items that pose a big pollution problem, I've decided to tackle this challenge in a slightly different way. After all, "it may involve a bit of treasure hunting and imagination."
One thing about this QOTW was about understanding how to deal with something I am abundant in that I have to this point considered 'waste'.
Given that the next week is going to be very busy with work, I'm applying a creative approach to this challenge...
Something I am abundant in — and certainly will be next week, I'm sure — is...
tire-dness.
You know I can't sleep, I can't stop my brain
You know it's three weeks, I'm going insane
You know I'd give you everything I've got
For a little peace of mind
— The Beatles
So I'm wondering if I can up-cycle my abundance of tire.
The purpose of Taoist Alchemy is the act of transmutation: changing one thing to another thing. In Taoist medicine, tiredness (fatigue) is a sign of deficiency of Qì, either from a lack of nutrient, or some kind of stagnation/blockage somewhere in the system.
The challenge I'm setting myself (as well as trying to find an old tyre to re-purpose, as per the QOTW challenge) is to transmute my tiredness, to use it as the source to change something in my diet/lifestyle during the week.
I guess I'll be posting on how this is going over the course of this challenge.
One thing's for certain,
A year like this passes so strangely
Somewhere between sorrow and bliss
— Florence & The Machine
Listen to the soundtrack for this post here
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You can come and get real tyres from ours.. we live in Winch, it's mandatory we have a surplus. X
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Maybe you could drip one off?
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h9ly cow, i just realised that playlist is real.. what theF.. .amazeballs.. you are one original inspiring human!
Thanks man... appreciate it!!
Yep, most of my posts have ‘soundtracks’. The embed doesn’t work on Steem so I have to remember to take a snapshot and link it back to the playlist....
“Rock and Roll saved my life”
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"Refusing to use what I had" is interesting, cos soooo often that's true. 'I have nothing in the fridge' is so often not exactly correct, and it is a mental shift to honestly assess and USE the abundance we are not aware of. So often I have been in that place and managed to prepare quite a feast, despite the first impression of 'having nothing'. Nice perspective.
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I really like the soundtrack idea too, really thoughtful and a special added something - your USP :))
I also wrote on a similar vein as your post. I wonder why it is human nature to always want more or do everything and to have it right now. It seems that we have to fight our brains every step, until we reprogram it with positive reinforcements.
beautiful! i literally need to mediate on this post.. SO many wise perls of wisdom for me.. especially this paragraph:
and a VERy sneaky ending! you rock thank you!
Very cool! I love how you made a soundtrack for the post! Reading it from top to bottom, you already planted some of the song in my mind, at least the ones I recognized: Silverchair, The Beatles... not Queen though, which I thought was weird. But then I could actually listen to your playlist. Awesome!
Cheers!!! Most of my posts have a soundtrack, it fuels my writing, and then songs or lyrics from songs pop into my head as I’m writing stuff. It makes sense that my stories need to include the soundtrack — glad you like it! 😉🙏🏽🎸
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To support your work, I also upvoted your post!
I love that you linked to the soundtrack! Every time I read a post I end up opening up my music files and digging up the songs to listen to. I wish you success in re-purposing your tire-dness.
Ah! I like that! Having an attitude of gratitude for what you have allows you to see the abundance around you!
I went through a change awhile back where I finally gave up trying to "make money on line" and started appreciating what I had with a comfortable lifestyle and my finances were okay. I started to spend more time with my partner and offline in my beautiful homestead and the stress started dropping away - gone was that idea of chasing the buck!
It's funny I even came to Steemit looking to make some crypto currency but I found something much more valuable in the people and communities I was connecting too!
Thanks for sharing this!
Like your idea for part two in re-purposing your abundance of tiredness - looking forward to reading your outcome.