Whatever destroys the very fragment of humanity has to be wrong.
Beyond all we have here and now, life is not exactly as simple as some people wish it were. This is why we are always trying find ourselves, in search for the next thing, big or small, in search of balance, in search for highs, and we have seen cases where the person who is unintentional about where he wants to go and who he wants to be, gets tossed around until he loses out completely.
Navigating life is like trying to skate on thin ice. When we are not present, when we are not focused on a goal — which is most times anyway — the ice will break, and we'll fall to the other side and become all that we hoped never to be.
This is why balance is hard, and nobody who is unconscious ever gets it right. This why we often times get to the point where we ask about what happened to our lives. The best way to live life is to learn the balance, to learn how to skate on thin ice, to learn to navigate the thin line of life.
What is the Thin Line of Life?
It is the line that stands in between mediocrity/nonchalance/lack of ambition and greed/obsession.
It is the line that stands in between religious extremism and religious apathy.
It is the line that stand in between the two extremes of insanity.
It is the line in between people pleasing and hatred or lack of compassion.
It is the line that stands in between intense ambition at the expense of other people and failure.
It is the line in between silence and confrontation.
It is the line in between letting things go and standing your ground.
It is the line in between giving up and holding on.
It is the line that cuts across all fragments of life.
At every point, every day of our lives, we are working a relationship with this line. We have either broken the line and are sinking on one side of either extremes unaware, or we are trying to find our way back to the thin line.
On this thin line is where we find balance. And the truth is, finding perfect balance is something we will always be in constant and consistent work for.
You can also think about this thin line as a Number Line, you know the number line we were taught in school, upon which numbers run and right there in the middle is the point zero. Further going on to the left is where you have negative numbers, and journeying right is where you have the positive numbers.
Life is like that, and the goal should be to reach point zero;
the point where you have enough and are content;
the point where you feel kindness and love, but not so much as to deprive yourself of it;
the point where you have faith, but you also let other people live, not judging them based on your own moral/religious compass;
the point where you are able to let go of things and people that don't serve you anymore;
the point where you know exactly when to speak or shut up, especially when it concerns you and you'd be doing a service to the world at large.
Balance is about avoiding both ends of the spectrum, staying away from both extremes and realising that all you see is not all there is, and so you work daily to find that line and be present enough to find your way back to that line when you tilt.
It is sad that billions of people aren't aware of that thin line, and so they unconsciously tilt further go down one end of the extreme, and overall become the irritant that they detested one time.
It is okay to tilt from time to time, in fact, we are all in a perpetual, never-ending dance from right to left, but it's important that we come back, that we consciously make deliberate effort to come back to that thin line, to make the journey towards balance.
The best way to do this is to be present, be conscious, deliberately ask yourself everytime you catch yourself;
"What side of the line have I tilted to?
How far gone am I?
What steps am I going to take to get back to balance?
Am I going to the left, or to the right?
What do I do to get closer to the middle point? To the middle of the line?"
These questions will guide your path and will keep you away from extremism.
A lot of people have conflated conviction with extremism, but they are two contrasting points. Conviction is the hill you'll die on, extremism is the hill upon which you want other people to die on with you, whether they like it or not. You can have convictions and stick with them even as you find balance away from extremism.
Conviction is the hill you'll die on, extremism is the hill upon which you want other people to die on with you, whether they like it or not.
This is important to our growth because the further away from the line we stray, whether to the right or to the left, we lose what's left of the humanity in us and we begin to fight needless wars from the opposing views of both extremes, firmly holding our own opinions and beating up the other person to chew on our opinions as well, and we would be both sorely wrong, because whatever tears down the line completely, whatever destroys the very fragment of humanity has to be wrong.
Whatever tears down the line completely, whatever destroys the very fragment of humanity has to be wrong.
This is what both extremes will do, both in ourselves, and out in the world. Which is why I implore you, utilise consciousness and presence as tools to find your way back to the thin line of life, and do that everyday.
To your growth,
Abiola Okunsanya,
Handzinspired. ✨
This is enlightening!!
Thanks for sharing this insightful post, sir. 👏🏾