We are fascinated by Brahma – the creator
Wanting to be creators ourselves
We are terrified of Shiva – the destroyer
Desperately avoiding death and endings
And Vishnu – the sustainer, goes largely unnoticed
We seem to just keep on keeping on
We don’t realize the power of the grip of momentum
How deep the ruts are that hold us on the old road of who we are
The conscious and unconscious beliefs, ways of doing things, and daily “rituals”
All designed to ‘support’ us = keep us as we are – comfortable
Family, social group, work culture, sports and other fandom
All reinforce our personal and social identity
Experience has taught us the tried and true
Trauma has frozen and numbed us into stasis
Vishnu is everywhere, when we look around
Often hidden in cycles – some decades long, the same old issues and battles
Occasionally we are challenged or disrupted by dramatic events
And we re-arrange our lives while talking about back to normal, new normals – always striving for normals
But, but, but everything is changing. There has never been a time of such change.
The external expressions may change, the technology, new faces but the same plot-line, the deck chairs rearranged – new wine in the old skins – so different from changing who we are
We are the pattern people
Repeatedly, unconsciously weaving the threads of our lives within the known – staying in the pattern
Sometimes we think we will create something new
But, of course without the death of the old – without Shiva – and we remain the same
Thinking of changing?
Recognize the energy required to break out of a pattern, free from momentum
All the things that need to end / die
In order to stop going in the current direction
And even harder, the relationships that may need to end.
‘What will we let go of’ is relatively easy, compared to ‘who will we let go of ‘
Don’t underestimate the power of Vishnu
Without radical intervention
Momentum will always win