We sacrificed variability for stability, but at what cost?

We are a generation who is very much alive, but are we truly living?

We have sacrificed variability for stability in every facet of life. But in the hunt for stability, did we sacrifice what it means to live? What it means to truly be alive?

Life is built within the spaces, within the ebbs and flows of emotion. In the small moments between good and bad and the quick flash between life and death, and needless of me to remind you - it is oh so very quick.

Animals starve, they hunt, they win and they fail. They face the cold and they also face the gentle warmth of the new spring and the internal shift toward positivity that comes with the seasonal variance. If not for the kiss of a cold winter's night, they would never have appreciated the warmth, rather cursed it for the sweat that lines their parched lips, before they are once again received by the gentle still and cold embrace of winter.

We have spent generations trying to make our life easier, trying to create stability. Only to arrive there to never be more confused, to never be more saddened and unsure. We are a generation who is very much alive, but are we truly living?

We have sacrificed the highs and lows and ended up in a linear state where we are neither happy nor sad. Some would say that the trade off is worth it, as I look out at the cafe in which I sit, full of people who are more fascinated by the photos they take than the person sitting in front of them, I would happen to say the tradeoff is indeed, not worth it all.

We took the lows of life and traded them in like a secondhand pair of shoes, for a stable life, polished and predictable, devoid of all true sadness. But in doing so, we sacrificed the highs that soon follow. We sacrificed the sweet kiss of new love, the kind that can only be fully felt after deep and aching pain. Yes, we escaped gut-wrenching agony, but at what cost? At the cost of unconditional love, the depth of true feeling, and the raw beauty of vulnerability.

We sacrificed not knowing where our next meal is coming from for store-bought consistency. But in consistency we sacrificed quality, we sacrificed seasonality, and at the expense of what? Our health. We loved peaches so much we wanted to make them available day in - day out, and so we utilised chemicals, toxins and imports to make our wish so. Now nobody appreciates peaches at all, we didn’t realise that the appreciation coincided with scarcity.

Matthew 6:26 (ESV): "Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?"

My point is a simple one, it’s that life is not found in stability. It’s found in adventure. It’s found in the unknown. Life is found in movement, in the death and rebirth of a well-lived cell, in the lush greenery that emerges after a wildfire, that gasp of relief when the fire is over. A life where everyone is merely slipping through the same pre-made stable reality sounds more like a production line than a life, and most definitely not a life well lived.

We have everything our ancestors dreamed of and yet, we are the sickest and most unhappy we have ever been. We have food at our fingertips, a lack of meal is not a modern worry, we have shelter and warmth, a never-ending supply of suitors and yet we have never been more ungrateful and void.

1. Scarcity creates appreciation.

“The longer the winter, the more appreciation you have for summer heat.”

We often do not know the true value of things until we have gone without. When something is a given, whether that be a relationship, a food item or a warm bed to sleep in, or when we haven’t had to work for it, it is easy to take it for granted.

2. It’s often in life’s pressure that we truly come to understand the power of love.

“I know that love is real because I feel it when I look at you. If anyone tried to bring harm to you, I would be scared for that soul, for what I would do to protect you is beyond my own. It has only come to my realization in a frightening moment such as now and for that, I am a foolish, foolish man.”

We often only appreciate our intimate others during times of stress and hardship. It is so easy to get wrapped up in minor things, we can get also stuck in our own head and within society, but in times of true hardship love will always reveal itself. It is important to have community outside of invested interests and create real, unconditional relationships.

Life lived in variability (a life well lived) will always yield hard times, you need to find those who will walk with you through fire, who will pick you up when you fall, and for whom you would do the same. Love and community are both vital and are often only fully appreciated during hard times. Life is not meant to be lived alone, but when life is stabilised for you (fiat), community becomes less of a priority and under-appreciated.

3. There is no greater regret, than regret.

“Even if this is all true, and it's all a lie, and what I think I know, I do not, what would it be? Should I pave a way out? Should I curse the walls of society? I wish I never knew what I know now, so I could live a simple, honest life, but I can’t live in denial, and I know not what to do now.”

There seems to be a bias where the actualities are too much for some. It is almost a survival mechanism. Where the truths of life are far too much, too heavy and pose too much threat to their current belief system that they live in strategic denial and live within the walls of stability. However, there seems to be a select few who hold the weight of truth on their shoulders, pave forward into the unknown, go against the grain and forge their own future, and even though it is not stable, at least they are really living, at least they know what it is to really feel alive.