As I have written in a previous post it is helpful to try and stay in the moment and animals in my humble opinion are great teachers of staying in the moment. But always staying present isn't completely practical. Even animals have to occasionally plan for the future. Squirrels hide away their nuts and beavers build their dams and get them ready for winter. But I think letting go of expectations of the future is where the difference lies between animals and many of us modern day humans. And the more I observed this the more it seemed the animals had the right idea and had better peace of mind.
When I walk with my dogs their is usually a general route that they follow but we definitely veer off for various reasons. Sometimes they add on extensions or we veer because they picked up the sent of something. Perhaps I turn them because something that will upset them is coming up on our usual route. Observing on these walks has taught me that you can't guarantee what's going to come your way. You have a general trajectory but it is always in flux. I noticed that it seems all animals have a general plan but are always making adjustments. For instance as this article describes the hunting tactics of the wolf are constantly changing as they test and reevaluate the situation. Is there weak and vulnerable prey, what is the best tactic for take down, do they wait it out or go on to another hunt, ect. But at the same time the hunt is carefully planned they are not just wildly running in trying to kill the first animal they come across.
I have tried using this tact of planning but always making adjustments in my life. Perhaps you get the promotion perhaps you don't, perhaps you go to college perhaps you don't, perhaps you get married perhaps you don't. We are conditioned in modern society to always hit certain milestones. We have to advance our career and settle down and get married and get a home and start a family usually by a certain age. Which if that's what you want to do there is nothing wrong with planning to do that and setting out with that objective but like my dogs be prepared to be veered off course by other developments I have learned. Maybe you get married later. Or maybe not at all due to some circumstances. Maybe you start your whole career path over again. Maybe you get divorced and have to start dating in middle age again. Maybe a great opportunity has you moving to a brand new country. All different circumstance can make us have to reevaluate and change directions.
When you get right down to it all organisms on earth are trying to find food and water, breathe, and reproduce. Essentially that is it. The myriad ways in which organisms do these things is the beauty and majesty of life on this planet. We humans are also essentially doing these things but we add on so many additional things that we forget what the essentials are. As long as you have the essentials you can chart your own individual path to happiness and when a path you weren't planning on traveling springs up before you enjoy it. It is just a unique way to achieve the essentials of life like our fellow earthlings have charted new paths to achieve these things. So I try to take a page from our animal brethren and be open to new developments. It's hard many of the times but in truth we all have our own particular paths to walk. As a famous song states "sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and in the end, it's only with yourself".
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