As a keen observer of life, one truism becomes apparent over and over and over again.

We western (or 'non-poverty-stricken') human beings take life for granted. We don't feel gratitude for what we have, always looking to get what we haven't got.

We use our eyes, but we don't see.
We use our ears, but we don't listen.
We know, but we don’t understand.

We abuse our bodies, abuse our minds, suppress our spirit and human essence. We ever seek pleasures, and eschew joys.

We carve out misery and thirst from an abundance of beauty and water.

We are rich and feel entitled.
We are poor and feel envious.
The grass is always greener over there.
But do we ever water our own?

We desire something, get it, have two minutes of pleasure, and then move onto the next desire. Or we fail to get it and feel never-ending pain.

Constantly enslaved to the future. Today is merely a fleeting mirage.

And then one day illness strikes. A cancer here, a coma there, a heart attack, a stroke, a diabetes, a truly horrible health condition hits us, apparently suddenly.

We kid ourselves we've hit bad luck.

But no, we have been on this karmic path by our very own actions, choices and habits, but ignorance or denial (elephant in the room) ruled the waves. And then time catches up with us, and the karmic dues are called in.

And now life REALLY doesn't look so good. Our health is shot, and we are forced into our reckoning.

And I come back to the start of this post.

Now two options exist.

One of them is truly incredible, considering the damage we have consistently done to ourselves, and for me it just shows how benevolent and forgiving the universe, creation, God is.

Either we make no changes, get patched up by the medical system, and eke out our days, still feeding our addictions and still stuck in our harmful habits that led to our downfall.

It ain't pretty, and it will just get worse and worse.

Or we reflect and finally realise what we have been doing to ourselves. We see we did it. We see we can't blame others any more. We see the truth of things. We are forced into recognising 'the elephant in the room' from a place of terrible pain. We change our diet, our lifestyle, our mindset and attitude, and we feel supremely grateful for our second chance.

And slowly the universe mends our broken body and mind, and with this healing our spirit, our soul, our human essence emerges, blinking in the light, wondering if it's really true, has he/she really chosen us now?

Now we can SEE and HEAR and TOUCH life, and it looks, sounds and feels amazing. Now an attitude of tremendous gratitude fills our whole being, and we discover the joys that only exist TODAY.

I have come across, and read the stories of, so many people who have taken the second option, and they are all doing brilliant work and creating much positive energy for humanity's collective pot of energy and positive evolution. And loving their own life. Now their human essence flows like the Ganges.

But, I can never help but think, what a painful way to wake up and be born to the beauty of life. Surely it’s not necessary?

And, I couldn't help but think, as soon as the unsurprising calamity descended upon the collective human family in 2020... I knew it was the same choice. Wake up, prick your ignorance (it's not our fault, the school system did it to us before we can defend ourselves), embrace the change your ego resisted all along, learn how to live intelligently instead of stupidly, and take charge of your life and health.

And the Universe, Creation, God, has your back… after all, it expressly invited you to join the party of Life!

Or carry on the same way, continue to have your strings pulled by inner demons and external control freaks, psychos and dacoits, and wait until it's all over, in a psychologically and physically painful final leg of the journey.

My hope, and instinct, is that collectively speaking, humanity will learn from this so-called ‘pandemic’ how to start living life from the off, without the need to go through hell to get to the beauty. It is a virus of our mind, and only fixing our mind will fix the virus.

And yes, I've had to face my own choices, throw my own conditioned ignorance into the bin. It's how I know what I'm talking about, because I've lived it myself, and observed it in others, and discussed it with others.

To be human is a mindblowing experience.