We live in an increasingly digital world. Perhaps that's a waste of space to even put into words. There are so many seemingly binary choices as a part of our daily lives. On or off, stillness or action, left or right, yin or yang.
I have subscribed to the "black or white" mentality for a long time, often without even recognizing that I was doing so. There is this choice or that one, and those are the only two options. I have recently attempted to migrate my entire digital footprint to the Google ecosystem (phone, watch, email, etc.). I was all in, everything or nothing, until I ran up against some shortcomings that were better handled by non-Google entities. It was insanely (and embarrassingly) difficult for me to "abandon" my choice to fully immerse myself in a single ecosystem, even in the name of personal efficiency.
It becomes habitual, this unspoken decision to follow a particular path. We don't question its validity, because in our minds, we're certain it's the correct one. And yet, it's not.
I've often wondered why I'm so fascinated by what's in the sky or out at sea. It's everywhere except where I spend most of my time, with two feet planted firmly on the surface of Earth.
Then, I thought about traversing that personal path I've spoken about with blinders on. There's nothing that forces us in a particular direction when in the sky or on the water. No road, no white and yellow lines, no physical or metaphorical boundaries that dictate how we get from point A to point B. We have the freedom to veer and meander to find a suitable way to our destination.
And that's where I return to this idea of a "black or white" mentality. The yin and yang symbol represents the opposite but complementary forces in nature. It reaffirms the interconnectedness of everything around us. Even when we're locked into viewing a binary emblem associate with Chinese philosophy dating back to 300 BC, a slight shift in our perspective allows us to see deeper, something more.
If we travel in a straight line from black to white on the color spectrum, we recognize that there are not only two choices. Instead, there are an infinite number of gray shades to choose from. And maybe that's realization enough, but it gets even better. What if we remove those unnecessary restrictions of moving in a straight line? What if we allow ourselves to meander left or right in that metaphorical open sky or sea?
As we give ourselves permission to do so, what do we encounter? We discover an entire spectrum of color that opens our eyes to an infinite number of hues.
Take that scenic path. Color your world with new discoveries that have the power to shape your perspective in liberating ways.
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