Over the last couple of weeks, there was a renovation going on at the last floor of the building where we live. Something related to water infiltration. On the first day after the metal scaffolding was assembled, it felt uncomfortable: people walking by the windows, even though we live on the second floor. A warning from our landlord: there’s a higher risk of theft as well. The first days when the building was surrounded by this metal structure surely felt different, unnatural. We closed the windows and brought down the shutters consciously, and our life became a little more constrained because of that: less light, less fresh air, less freedom in a general sense.
And so the days and weeks passed. And closing the windows came more naturally.
And less light became the norm. And less freedom became the norm. This new construct that was not there in the first place became the new standard for our home, and we took all the limitations it imposed as now a natural part of our lives.
How often is this mechanism active? How often do we take such constructs, not around our buildings, but around our lives, around our behavior, around our society, and internalize them as “the way life is”? And so we lose our light, we lose our fresh air, we lose our freedom, ever so slowly, ever so imperceptibly, little by little.
May we become aware of the bondages and attachments that bind our lives. And may we attain the wisdom to let them go.
The Nemo Writer 