Today’s life, at face value, seems all normal. Everyone seems to be fine and going about their everyday activities. Everyone seems to be doing just well and living the best of life – a family, a job, a couple of possessions and sometimes, a little bit of a life of a party. However, just as not everything that glitters is gold, there is always more to what the naked eye may and cannot see.

It is very much easier to assume that all is well when everyone seems to be doing the same things as everyone else. It becomes normalised, people get accustomed to it, and eventually it becomes the culture. It also becomes easier to blend in and avoid unnecessary discomfort, because to live and think differently may attract attention that may translate into ostracisation or even backlash. Thus, for the sake of personal peace of mind, one may not even bother.

It takes one the time to stand back and realise that there is more to what the eyes can see. In this instance, one may take the watcher role and get a completely different picture. It is only from this third-eye perspective that one may realise that most of what drives human activity is either some form of fear and/or an attempt to escape undesirable circumstances or a state of mind of some sort. It even becomes interesting that for every discomfort, an escape route of some sort has emerged and exists.  

The routes of escape may be disguised as anything that one subconsciously may ever want. It may be everything that is propagated as glamorous and fashionable. Although one who may have heavily invested in it may go to any length to justify it, it is simply what it is – a constant chase of the wind to find meaning in the wrong places and activities while escaping the very discomfort that may lead to the ultimate purpose of life.

Often it is only when one hits rock bottom or experiences a significant emotional event that the picture becomes clearer. It is then that it may become clear that all that is needed to overcome the emptiness is not out there but within. It is there where one detests looking where the treasure lies. 

There in the darkest caves of the soul, everything else may dwell, but to go in there one may first drop everything that wears them down. This may not literally mean denouncing external life but rather giving up identifying with it. For it is true, that to look within me revives the voice that for so long has been silenced, a light that is about to go out and a rose that has withered. 

At this juncture, one may then realise that every challenge, discomfort, and pain we do our best to escape from, is nothing more than the stepping stone – not to everything we ever wanted, but rather to everything and someone we need to be.

* Uncommon Sense is published in the New Era with contributions from Karlos Naimhwaka. karlsimbumusic@gmail.com