Living on the Edge

So I'm sitting in Kathmandu getting ready for my leadership trek and I'm re-reading "Sacred Mountains of the World" by Edwin Bernbaum one of my trek leaders. The passage I'm reading discusses how mountains both bring out both a sense of awe and a sense of dread.

It struck me (again) how we are drawn to things that are an enigma. We are drawn to people and places of contradiction (eg. a sense of awe and a sense of dread). Just as I am now drawn to the Himalayas and the base of Mount Everest. A place that both creates awe as well as the nervous tension of the unknown.

I've written about this before in a post on Concept Duality. A post on how we need both sides of the same coin to truly experience life. We need to live on the razor thin edge of certainty and uncertainty, awe and dread, stability and excitement. It even comes into play in our expression of self. We need to both be accepted by our peers and at the same time stand out and be enough of an individual that our groups (friends, family, co-workers) acknowledge our uniqueness (but not so much as to be ostracized by them).

The better we are at living on that edge the more juice we can squeeze out of life. And hence why I'm sitting writing this from Kathmandu and not San Francisco (can you tell, I tend to like the unexpected more than the certain).

So here is my question: Are you really satisfied?

Is your certainty satiated? Are you comfortable that the walls aren't going to give way, that the floor will stay under your feet, that your family is taken care of, that your career is going in the right direction, that your ??? is ???

Is your uncertainty satiated? Are you nervous enough about what tomorrow might bring that you can't wait until the sunrise comes? Are you uncertain enough about what you might do, where you might be, who you might meet, what you might accomplish, what you might ??? tomorrow that it pulls you from your slumber every once in a while and makes you pay attention.

If you're too certain about tomorrow then you'll be board. If you're too uncertain about tomorrow then you'll be terrified.

So here's the challenge:
- If you have too much certainty in your life ... rock the boat
- If you don't know where you'll be tomorrow ... take a breath, reset, and get to calmer waters

See you on the wire

- Steven Cardinale