Life: Yours for the Taking

Take a late-night stroll down most city centres on a Friday night and you will see a buzzing hive of human activity.

Clubs littered throughout the street reel in the drunks of the night with a platter of tasty promises.

Loud songs: Let your ears be filled with them, and, if you’re lucky, these outside sounds might just drown out the voice inside your head.

Bright flashing lights: Let your eyes be filled with them, and, if you’re lucky, you’ll be temporarily blinded to all the harsh truths of your own life you don’t want to look at.

Other humans: Let your own body be surrounded by a sea of others, and, if you’re lucky, you might find some intimacy. Let your arms be filled by a fellow member of your species because you can’t manage to fill the hole within you by yourself.

The clubs. The weekend parties.

The night life.

Venture down a city centre and observe the so-called ‘night life.’ What is it really offering? Why are so many enticed? Why do the queues stretch out so far?

Whatever the reason, something notable stands out: Those who chase the night life do so by choice.

The 18 to 24 year olds that were conscripted to fight world wars did not have a choice. The ones that fill the dance floor, however, do so as a matter of choice.

The ones that have chosen to be here chose to buy the alcohol from the supermarket ahead of time. The ones that have chosen to here chose to spend the time to get ready before they went out. The ones that have chosen to be here chose to intoxicate themselves and sleep late.

There is, of course, nothing wrong with any of this. How could there be? You have chosen to do all this.

I have recently been able to observe those who enjoy ‘going out.’

What struck me was not the deleterious health effects of alcohol consumption or late-nights, but the fact that those who adopt this lifestyle do so as a choice.

Human life was once almost entirely rooted in the mission for basic sustenance and survival. Civilisation has now advanced so much so that a person may very easily give up an entire evening and the early hours of the following morning to jump around in a dark room in the company of other humans. If they subsequently wake up the next day to find themselves hungover… well, that’s all alright! Because it’s the weekend! They can spend the day lounging indoors with no real requirement to exercise their physical or mental faculties.

Now, please don’t misunderstand my words. I’m not at all trying to indicate such a lifestyle is bad, lazy, or to be looked down upon with any sense of negativity.

Rather, it is to draw attention to one unmissable fact: In the modern day, one has the luxury to engage in such activities — and — it’s all a matter of choice. Nothing more than a decision you have simply made.

Now, extend this observation to the entirety of your life. It matters not whether you’re a regular clubber or asleep by 22:00 every night. What matters, and what is striking, is that all of it was your choice. Being a monk is as much of a choice as being a hedonist.

The simplest of things, when understood truly and deeply, are the most wonderous.

To truly understand how your life rests in your own hands is the most liberating thing of all.

Any moment you find yourself stressed or not enjoying the circumstance you have put yourself in, it is because of one reason.

You have forgotten it is you that have put yourself there.

Life is yours for the taking.

What you do after listening to this will be your choice. Problems only ever arise when you forget this one simple fact.