Thirty Something

You know that song "Paradise" by Coldplay? there is a part that says: "life goes on, it gets so heavy..."

After thirty, people start to have issues. Not that we don't have them before but when we're twenty, for example, who cares if we screw up? I mean isn't that what young people do? At thirty, however, it's a different story and we become more demanding of ourselves. We expect something more from our lives.

Deep conversations with people in their thirties, friends mostly, have led me to realise the diversity of needs and wishes that people have:

- Some are looking for a partner.

- Some people want to quit their jobs and get a ticket to go see the world.

- Some are looking for a job (or a better job)

- Some are looking for a new apartment or house.

- Some want a husband who is more connected to the family.

- Some people want to make more money.

- Others want a divorce.

- Some people want kids.

- Some people want to fall in love with their partner all over again.

- Some men want their wives to work or study or just do something different than spend all day with the kids.

- Some want to have sex with their wives again.

- Some people don't know what they want.


Those are just some examples, but the important thing, I think, is to not feel alone in whatever your "search" is. Just remember that there are many people in their thirties with issues just like you. Remember also, that there is a direct link between how we see the world, the actions we take and the results we get.

Once we understand this, we are free to make the change or changes that will bring us closer to our truest wishes and needs.

Plato's cavern

I'm reading Laurent Gounelle's "I Will Not Leave Without Telling You Where I go" and have come across a few passages that deal with something that we sometimes resist: change. The translation is mine because the version I'm reading is in Spanish.

"Today a lot of people live in Plato's Cavern without even realizing it. They are afraid of what is unknown to them and reject any sort of change that affects them personally. They have ideas, projects, dreams but they do not fulfill them because they are often paralyzed by fear. Their feet and hands are held by handcuffs to which they only have the key to unlock. Keys hang in their neck but they never take them.

Life itself is made up of continuous change. It would not make any sense to hang on to the status quo. Only the dead remain still. We not only have to accept change, we also have to start it in order to be able to evolve in the sense that is most convenient to us.

[...] Resistance to change is what makes adults and children differ. Children feel like evolving while adults often do everything they can not to. (perhaps not at a conscious level)
When we no longer feel like evolving, we start to die very slowly...

[...] If you want to be young all your life, continue evolving, learning, discovering, don't lock yourself up in habit that makes your mind get stuck nor in the comfort of what is already known to you because before you know it you could become numb."

Plato's Allegory of the Cave remains a powerful metaphor for understanding the limitations of human perception and the transformative journey towards true knowledge and enlightenment. 

Remember that destiny is also an excuse for not making things happen. You create.