The Tapestry of Life, and Those Who Weave It

Last night, I felt restless. As I lay in bed, my mind wandered all over several subjects, until finally coming to a stop on the issue of "Fate". I thought about how our past affects our present, and our future. In Norse mythology, this process is called "Wyrd", and the Norns were the ones who made it do what it does.

In my life, Wyrd has played an important and emphasized role. A lot of my more intense life lessons don't come from my observances of the present world, but of the past. I look back on how things were, and see their affects on my life now, and from this perspective I glean many of my understandings of the Mysteries.

Unfortunately, my knowledge and understanding of Wyrd isn't what I'd like it to be. On rare occasions I still feel "victim" to the Norn's whims. I feel like the Universe is working against me or, in the very least, not responding to my intent.

Most of my practice, I've learned and been told that our entire experience with reality and thus our entire lives are the products of our intent, and our own will. Even the unpleasant things that seem to happen for no good reason at all are somehow caused by us. I do believe this, because I have observed the forces of Karma in my life several times.

For example, if you suddenly fall ill, even without a good idea of why, then that illness was drawn into your life somehow, either by your subconscious, or your higher self trying to get your attention about something. Each case is different, but I feel that, most times, illness is our body and selve's last resort to get our attention about an issue in our lives.

I think that it works a similar way with a lot of other things too, good as well as bad.

But, let's face it. Sometimes there are things in our lives that just suck and are really hard to explain. If we can't understand them enough to explain them, does that mean that they are pure chance?

The bigger question that I'd really like an answer to is, "Is anything left to chance?"

Modern perspective is that life is uncertain. "Shit happens", they say, and all we can do about it is deal with it.

Can this be true? Are we really the unfortunate and unsuspecting victims of chance? Or, is there truly something to this idea that we create our own realities?

I find it hard to believe that we all must deal with the 'randomness' of the Universe, and just accept that things will happen to us beyond our control. The reason it's so hard is because I know that, naturally speaking, humans are equipped with poor foresight. For beings with complex intellect, our foresight is certainly impaired. We have the ability to think and create "what if" scenarios in our heads for the purpose of really thinking things over. But perfect clarity never, ever comes. Not even if we use special means of deciding things, like divination. So, I do not believe that, in order for us to have control, we must have an understanding of things that is naturally beyond us. Seems a bit unfair to me.

I suppose what really makes me think of all this is the fact that our actions sometimes have unforeseen or unintended consequences. Sometimes when we're in a rush, and we intend to take the fastest way home, we end up stuck in traffic. Sometimes, locking our bike to the nearest fixture with the intent of keeping it safe, causes it to get stolen. Despite our best attempts, sometimes our actions produce consequences we neither intended nor are prepared for.

These consequences are still caused by our actions. In this way, we still have control. And, what's more, we can decide how we deal with these consequences, and in my experience, there is always a pleasant way to deal with (or avoid entirely) these things that come up unexpectedly as a result of our best judgment.

The Norns weave our lives, and they knit together cause and effect. They connect it all, and they make sure our actions have consequences. I suppose we need only be aware of this, and really consider each of our potential actions before we make them a reality. Our foresight, as poor as it may be, is our best way to construct our lives. Taking responsibility and really trying to understand how this function of the Universe works makes life that much easier.

As a wise woman once said, "Life is 5% what happens to us, and 95% how we react to it".