We are fascinated by power. A need to have immense influence over the world around us.

To stand tall like the gods and blot out the sun and cause gale winds with the mere act of breathing.

Our footsteps shaking the ground and our most subtle movements rending apart the fabrics of the earth.

Thought and insight so complex it's infinitely beyond the understanding of lesser beings.

Just now I attempted to brush a fluttery little bug away from my monitor and, due to it's fragile nature or my clumsy absentmindedness, smeared him across it instead.

Who am I to choose what lives and what dies? Relatively speaking I possess all the power in the world and as a result, frequently make that choice.

I am born from lifes yearning for itself and unlike most life on this planet I was given a choice.

It's a difficult choice, and it's fraught with countless consequences for many forms of life all around.

Everyday I wake up and choose myself. -I- shall live and as a result, another will die. Perhaps it will be the animal meat cooked. Or perhaps it will be the vegetable meat steamed. Or maybe it will be the birds in the tree cut down in my backyard. Then I might kill the mice eating my ramen. Purge the moth eggs from my clothes. Smash the mosquito on my arm.

It seems I was born into a system made to choose my own life. Even without my consent my white blood cells kill bacteria in my body.

We choose our own life every day and when the time comes for one of our human lives to end we grieve and mourn and scream and cry.

We've done everything in our power to prevent our lives ending. Given that we've amassed so much power, so much knowledge, so many building blocks of insulation between us and the wild anarchy the rest of the world submits itself to, we must truly be the happiest species.

Yet more power, yet more desire, yet more to be fulfilled. Nothing is wrong with progress but there is only so much progress one can make.

Not possessing the ability to appreciate what one has, what choices are made everyday for our benefit, what choices we make for ourselves, is problematic.

Unlike other life we have choices about how to live our lives.

We do not need to make the choice to snarl and bristle when another steps in our territory.

We do not need to make the choice to bully and strike at those around us; for whatever reason.

We do not need to make the choice to covet resources from others.

We do not need to make the choice to harm ourselves or hinder ourselves from being anything more than we can be.

We do not need to make the choice to consider only our own well-being while we live our lives.

It is true that we experience all these feelings, all these feelings that every life form has some means of participating in.

But we have a choice in the matter.

Why? I would say our fascinatingly complex imaginative capacities that allows us to imagine infinite amounts of situations other than what we are immediately experiencing.

With our great imagination we can imagine a heaven or a hell. Much of the worlds change is attributed to the negative capacities imagined by us. But just think of what the world would be like without us.

Without the gods walking the earth, wishing for something, and given time, preparation, resources, organization, it appears. In any size, shape, with as many qualities spanning our entire imagination.

Which, as it turns out, collectively equals the entirety of the world.

With that much power, truly devastating and wonderful things can happen. By choosing our own lives yet choosing as many other lives as possible.

I can't unsmear that bug on my screen. Nor can I say a prayer for every mite slain by my scratching what I assume to be mine own arm.

I can't stop the battle inside me between disease and my internal organs any more than I can stop the wars across the world versus the same species.

All I can do is choose my own life, and promise for every day that a sacrifice is made for me to continue on,

that with the best intentions I will ease the suffering around me.

Through that, I suppose you could say I have immense influence over the world around me. With gentle yet integral progress towards my goal I am certain there are countless lives that I have enriched, sidled alongside those that I have destroyed.

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In order to change something, one must first give.

Do not be steamrolled or cast aside.

Firm, yet yielding.

But like walking towards a door, one must let their arm muscles soften the blow of your outstretched arm.

To not do so ends in a shock of force flying through your arm and the door. Try it next time, walk towards a door, arm locked without moving without breaking your pace.

Jarring comes to mind.

It's unnatural.

Let the door push on your hand, only slightly, only enough to feel the weight of the force against you, then gently and gracefully, push it the direction you desire.

The resulting movement is fluid, comfortable for both you and the door, and even though it originally opposed you, it has swung the direction of your choosing.

People are not like doors. They are not built upon hinges in which they easily swing one way or another.

They, like you, are full of their own feelings, thoughts, desires, destinations, goals, dreams.

And so if you absolutely feel that something must change,

allow yourself to give.

The only way that these forces can interact like the swinging door is for you to give, by listening, taking their shared thought, and letting the weight of it press into you much like the weight of the door in your palm.

Feel how heavy it is, how far back it stretches, how connected it is to it's

hinges, it's door frame, the wall it's built in, the floor the wall is on, the floors beneath and above it, the ground it's all set in.

Feel how much momentum that thought has behind it

And give it a gentle push. Not a strike, not a slap, just send it where you think

it needs to be.