Pass the Automaticity

Excuse me, Sir. Would you mind passing that Automaticity?

Working on automatic, how does one develop an understanding of life's purposes and designs? In a word - impossible.

Each day we awake from our dreams to face the coming day in anticipation of the new challenges that will come our way. But those challenges are only in relation to the plans and ideas that we had previously developed and duly recorded in our "special" notebook. To be truthfull, there are no new challenges. There are no new exciting and unexpected surprises coming our way. What is to come our way each new day is to be expected because all new events are only as good as they can be measured up against our "notebook" and be compensated for. All else is fearfully avoided.

What is contained within this "special notebook"? What have we duly recorded as reminders to ourselves as to how we are to deal with each passing day?

Duly written, as each opportunity presents itself, within this "book" is our self-governing rules of the road. It reminds us as to how we have successfully dealt with various situations and events in the past, which has served us well. Therefore, these recordings are used in the future as any "new" or similar events occurs.

Each day as we arise, we attempt to foresee which coming events will be the most appropriately handled by our various recorded "rules". Once a match, or at least the most closely matched, "rule" has been found, we meet the day with a sense of comfort and safety. We know that any "unexpected" event will now be handled in the most comfortable way possible. We will not be required to face any possible upcoming "unexpected" event without the comfort of knowing that we have the capacity to deal with it. We are safe. We can now safely proceed thru the day on "automatic". Our day is set - at least that is what we strive to believe.

Automaticities, which are our "rules of the road", can serve us well, but they can destroy us as well.

To escape from an uncomfortable situation, we reference our notebook and put ourselves on "automatic". Our notebook has served us well, and it is believed that it will continue to serve us well. The trust of our notebook is much greater than the distrust of our neighbors. After all, they have their own agenda and it is usually at odds with our written agenda.

If we are all to carry our notebooks whereever we go, how are we to ever break free and travel on our own paths? Our guidebook once served it's purpose, but as is the same with all guidebooks, they only reference the most widely traveled and popular paths. If we are to leave the mass mind behind, we must leave our notebooks behind as well.

Our paths do not end once our notebooks do. Our uncharted paths can not only be fraught with danger, but can be filled with eternal joy as well. These paths can never be found by referencing a guidebook that has it's place elsewhere. A journey begins by taking one step forward. A journey ends when more attention is given to the guidebook than to the path ahead. Shall I find you on the path ahead, or will you be passed by as you reference your guidebook as to what to do next...