Sacred Sacrifice

For every moment of bliss, a series of sacrifices were made in order to blaze the trail of abundance.

For example, think about the food you put in your mouth — the long journey it took to get there, the labor, the environmental impacts, and so on.

Sacrifice is what cultivates the sacred. Every person, every animal, every plant, every object took a journey. And every journey is full of twists and turns, every journey takes work. No-one and no-thing reaches their destination without persevering against the grain.

Avoiding labor (both physically and mentally) they say is a natural survival tactic encoded into our DNA. We are impatiently wired for short-term gains. We say it is “natural” for us to have evolved this way.

And yet… this paradox seriously confuses me. Nature itself is the most patient of them all — she never rushes, always takes her time. A flower does not spring up overnight. Was it patience or was it impatience that kept us alive during hunting/gathering days? Doesn’t the best hunter have the greatest patience?

Perhaps patience, perseverance, and long-term thinking is more natural to us than we realize, which is why it feels so right. But it’s not “normal” to us which is why it feels so uncomfortable. It’s not what we are used to.

We adapt and we adjust and we create new “normals” for ourselves. We fall down slippery slopes because we get too comfortable. And we forget that “normal” and “natural” are two seperate things.

Indulgement and sacrifice should be balanced. Restraining yourself can take you so much further than running ahead. There should be a build-up, anticipation and suspense to make that prize worth it.

This is what creates passion — putting work into something that will reward you, the harder you work and the more you hold back, until the right time comes to finally let go. And passion is what feeds energy.

Temporary misery can lead to something so much greater in the grand scheme of things. Putting in the work and embracing discomfort can bring you spectacular results.