SOME WEIRD SPECIMEN ON MARS
Whistler, Canada
“400 trillion to 1. That’s how rare it is to be a human being. You won the lotto of the universe, which is that you’re a human being. You’re not some weird specimen in Mars that does nothing, you’re not a bird, you’re not a sunflower. You’re a human being.” – Gary Vaynerchuck
We truly are one bloody lucky lot of humans. To be given the opportunity to experience life, to experience our incredible world, to see, to play, to walk, to think. It is a gift we are fortunate enough to receive and make do with it how we please.
I’m currently in Whistler, Canada. Visiting one of my best mates who has lived here a good 7 years now. 7 years. It has taken me 7 bloody years to go and visit one of my closest friends, who has returned to Oz many times over to see us. It is my fault for not putting in the effort to plan and save and get my arse there, even though it has apparently been on my “priority list” since the moment he decided to stay there and not come back.
I put it off because it seemed too hard to achieve, too hard to plan for. When in actual fact it was very achievable and far cheaper on the wallet than I thought. But so often we bail on an idea because we think it is going to be too expensive, too hard to get off work, too difficult to organise, too much hassle. Or we begin to tell ourselves a story that it won’t be that good, we won’t really miss anything that great.
So we miss out. The opportunity for some new fulfilment and adventure is gone. But I guess because we never went in the first place we don’t get to know what we missed out on. So it’s all cool yeah?
We carry on like it’s all good, I’ll get there one day, or it’s fine, I’m fine just working 9-5 and just ‘existing’. It’s like we think we’ve got some sort of extra life so we can go ahead and have a “do-over” once all the formal work has been completed in our first life.
It doesn’t work that way.
Our world is absolutely incredible, and we humans are gifted with such advanced intelligence and consciousness that we possess the unique ability to actually understand and appreciate how truly incredible all of it is. No other species has this ability.
A few days ago I got to walk on a lake. A bloody frozen over lake in the middle of the mountains. It was as if out of nowhere the world decided to drop about 300 football fields worth of untouched land for us all to play on. Dogs were bounding, old men were cross country skiing and people had shaped out rinks to skate and play hockey on. It was quiet, blissfully peaceful and the scenery was awe inspiring.
As John and I plodded along the lake kicking a ball back and forth, it was impossible to not feel so incredibly appreciative for… well… everything. For the stunning world we live in, for the people that helped make this trip a reality, for my mate for deciding to move to such an incredible place and for science and weather and its mind blowing ability to turn a lake into land.
I could have continued on with the story that I was going to come and visit “one day”, and yes I probably would have been just fine. Nothing lost (maybe a friendship for being “that mate” that says he will, but never does. Those friends aren’t friends). But by staying safe and never dreaming, never planning, never aspiring, you rob yourself of so much opportunity. Opportunity that may fill you with a level of joy, gratitude and contentment that you have never experienced before.
Don’t umm, arr and then turn away. Make it happen, whatever it is. You have complete control of this outcome, because you’re a bloody human being.
Stu.
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