"Cold Set"
Physical space can either be a constraint or a catalyst, it just depends on choice, and that choice is a cold calculus.
It is incremental progress we seek. That’s how we stave off deterioration. Otherwise stasis leads to stagnation, stagnation leads to decline, decline leads to oblivion. But growth doesn’t simply happen, and even intellectual progress is chained firmly to the parameters of our environment. We are embodied beings and our lives are played out within the frame of where we are. It is this fundamental limitation that offers opportunity, for the environment we choose is always of a particular kind. Each has its attributes, and those attributes are fundamentally stressors that force us into new modes of adaptation.
Not all spaces are equal, but all are equally powerful to catalyze change. Thus, patience, perseverance, and focus are necessary. We need both the integration into an environment as well as a length of duration to allow the necessary impression to be made. Often the time frames, and the true constraints of our physical embedding are unseen enemies instead of being critical allies. We turn from them instead of choosing to engage and struggle with them. We lack the depth of focus to use them to our advantage. We always want to get it over with, take the quick route, and go somewhere else when discomfort sets in.
But the act of living is action in time, and that necessitates both discomfort and duration. Excellence is never achieved in a single sitting. Or, if it seems that way, the years of effort progressing through environmental stressors beforehand are always what underwrites those idyllic moments of transcendence. Environments can be comforting or harsh, conducive to our aims or our demise. What’s needed is the decision to choose the correct one for our unique purposes. We need the will to persist, to allow physical space to make it’s impression so we can allow ourselves to be reshaped.
In this moment our space is winter. If growth comes from discomfort, then it’s time to let our feet feel the frost on the firmament, get uncomfortable, and let the cold set in.
It is incremental progress we seek. That’s how we stave off deterioration. Otherwise stasis leads to stagnation, stagnation leads to decline, decline leads to oblivion. But growth doesn’t simply happen, and even intellectual progress is chained firmly to the parameters of our environment. We are embodied beings and our lives are played out within the frame of where we are. It is this fundamental limitation that offers opportunity, for the environment we choose is always of a particular kind. Each has its attributes, and those attributes are fundamentally stressors that force us into new modes of adaptation.
Not all spaces are equal, but all are equally powerful to catalyze change. Thus, patience, perseverance, and focus are necessary. We need both the integration into an environment as well as a length of duration to allow the necessary impression to be made. Often the time frames, and the true constraints of our physical embedding are unseen enemies instead of being critical allies. We turn from them instead of choosing to engage and struggle with them. We lack the depth of focus to use them to our advantage. We always want to get it over with, take the quick route, and go somewhere else when discomfort sets in.
But the act of living is action in time, and that necessitates both discomfort and duration. Excellence is never achieved in a single sitting. Or, if it seems that way, the years of effort progressing through environmental stressors beforehand are always what underwrites those idyllic moments of transcendence. Environments can be comforting or harsh, conducive to our aims or our demise. What’s needed is the decision to choose the correct one for our unique purposes. We need the will to persist, to allow physical space to make it’s impression so we can allow ourselves to be reshaped.
In this moment our space is winter. If growth comes from discomfort, then it’s time to let our feet feel the frost on the firmament, get uncomfortable, and let the cold set in.