The Chinese have a saying you “can’t walk two paths without breaking a hip” –  aging makes that clear enough when even a straight path can be an enduring challenge. It appears that our traditional plans to create a happy and comfortable place to retire are becoming more limited and certainly more challenging by the day. The two paths unfolding appear to be an emerging global trend and more like a civilization problem of how the world will end up over the next millennium. 

The impulse to silence all opponents that don’t agree with my worldview either as an individual, a community or a nation is like a virus that’s catching on everywhere and in opposition to those nations of the global south that seek to engage in a more universal, comprehensive and fairer global community. Our little pocket of life may be fine for now but it can’t be that long before even these small zones of safety are stolen from us. The era of human survival zones is coming. Ultimately we all have to make a choice and face these two roads unfolding before. The Western version of the social credit system is on the agenda and beware, that could block access to almost everything you think you deserve in retirement.

Change is so incredibly difficult to manage at the best of times so we try to resist it at every turn, but our sneaky leaders use this against us in order to throw us off the scent. “Go back to the way it was” they shout, this is their only alternative and it’s rubbish. But the deception is based on preventing things from ever-changing and that’s in the best interests of the ruling elite because they want to keep it all for themselves.

“The worst form of injustice is pretended justice” – Plato

Above shot – damian siodlak / main photo piret ilver / unsplash

Retirement gives us plenty of time to think through the stuff that matters most, it’s a luxury really. If you’re reading this you’re probably one of the lucky few with the presence of mind to observe your inner world. The assumption in this blog is that mindfulness is on your radar but of course, you may not be ready to know yourself fully, deeply and it’s also possible you’re afraid of what you may find. Alternatively, you may have spent years in psychoanalysis uncovering layers of personality. You may have suffered enough to pose this question to yourself  “There must be more to life than this”. Choosing a safe path into the future will then be more about you and less about the unfolding power struggles emerging in our world. Less about blame.

Without this inner investigation taking place we are left with only two choices – ‘is it good or is it bad’. Events are filtered and interpreted as either ‘good for me or bad for me’ but isn’t what we consider ‘good’ constantly upended by life throwing stuff at us and if it doesn’t work out, it becomes ‘bad’ fairly quickly, right? No way out of there unless the whole thinking process is investigated more thoroughly. This black-or-white thinking tends to block out our interconnectedness with life, we feel separated, always seeking connection but never quite finding it.

There’s much on the horizon and the old ways of thinking may not be of service for much longer. A perfect storm is brewing and we are reaching several environmental tipping points that will change the world we live in and how we behave. You may want to ask yourself the question “What are the things that upset and disturb me the most” – this shines a light on where we are unwilling to let go of what keeps us stuck in the past and those pesky emotions we then carry into the present. We basically keep re-infecting our level of happiness over and over. This is the place we can begin to change the future, in the now, with presence and reflection.

It’s true that some of us enjoy brief moments of freedom from identification with every thought rushing through our heads but if we are totally possessed by our thoughts how can we retire comfortably, the struggle to be at peace will continue on. One path will take us to contemplation and peace the other to anger and blame. It’s time to decide and prepare for change.